Tim Blake Nelson Felt ‘Despair’ Before Returning to Marvel (Exclusive)

After nearly 16 years, Tim Blake Nelson is back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Nelson, 60, joined his Captain America: Brave New World co-stars at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 27. The actor spoke with PEOPLE about finally rejoining the big screen Marvel movies after his last appearance as Samuel Sterns in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk—a film credited for kicking off Marvel’s modern superhero craze.

While that film set up his character—also known as the Leader—as a potential villain for the Hulk, Nelson was never asked to reprise the role until now.

“You know, year after year, as I got further and further away from the introduction of the Leader through Samuel Stern, I would despair because I thought, well, I guess I’m never going to get to do that,” he told PEOPLE, also noting that he once expected to play a villain role for an un-produced sequel to 2015’s Fantastic Four movie.

“So I was pretty heartbroken and I was pretty resigned to never getting to have the other shoe drop with Samuel Sterns and the Leader. So I was absolutely ecstatic when Nate and Kiana called me to ask me to come back. I’m really grateful to Kevin Feige.”

Nelson appeared alongside Anthony Mackie, whose Marvel character Sam Wilson has taken on the title of Captain America, as well as Danny Ramirez, Giancarlo Esposito, and Harrison Ford during the Brave New World portion of Marvel’s Comic-Con presentation. The group announced that Esposito, 66, will portray a character called Sidewinder; Ramirez plays the new Falcon to Mackie’s Captain America, while Ford, 82, appears as Thaddeus Ross, the character previously played by the late William Hurt, who died in 2022.

“After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford in his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident,” reads an official synopsis for the upcoming movie. “He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.”

Nelson’s Comic-Con experience included walking the convention dressed as a Star Wars stormtrooper with one of his children on Saturday, as he told PEOPLE.

“It’s the only way I could walk to the floor, because they wanted to, I suppose, conceal which cast members were gonna show up on the stage,” he said of disguising himself prior to Marvel’s panel. “It was pretty fun walking around as a stormtrooper.”

Captain America: Brave New World premieres in U.S. theaters on Feb. 14, 2025.

Source: PEOPLE