Captain America: Brave New World Continues A Weird WWE Trend In The MCU

Contains spoilers for "Captain America: Brave New World"

Numerous professional wrestlers have successfully made the transition from the ring to Hollywood, be they Dwayne Johnson or John Cena. The Marvel Cinematic Universe even helped send Dave Bautista's acting career into overdrive with his casting as Drax in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. Be that as it may, there's been an unusual and somewhat sad trend as of late — one that's preventing Marvel from launching yet another WWE star to big screen glory.

"Captain America: Brave New World" is now out in theaters, and even though the first reactions weren't great, there's a lot for MCU fans to take in. It introduces adamantium to the MCU's Sacred Timeline and even features a quick cameo by Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). What it doesn't feature, however, is Seth Rollins. His involvement was revealed back to May 2023 when he was photographed wearing a green outfit on the film's set. This, in turn, led to Looper theorizing that Rollins is playing a member of the Serpent Society in the "Captain America" sequel (which is just called "Serpent" in the movie). However, when you watch "Brave New World," Rollins is nowhere to be seen. 

Both director Julius Onah and Rollins himself have commented on his exclusion, and it basically came down to the film having so many reshoots — and bringing in Giancarlo Esposito as Serpent's Sidewinder — that there wasn't a place for Rollins any longer. Strangely, though, he's not the first WWE star to film something for Marvel only to have it dropped from the finished product. Both Rollins' wife, Becky Lynch, and Damian Priest also got involved with Marvel briefly before getting shut out. So, what's with Marvel not utilizing professional wrestlers in its latest crop of films?

Multiple sources have stated that Becky Lynch filmed something for "Eternals." There's no information about what role she would've had, but it might've involved her and Eros (Harry Styles), likely in the film's post-credits scene. Reportedly, Marvel was satisfied with her performance, but her character was cut because the movie's original ending was too depressing. Styles still appears, though it remains to be seen if his cameo amounts to anything substantial in the MCU's future. Another theory suggests Lynch was set to play Siryn due to her bright orange hair. However, given that the character is a mutant rather than an Eternal, that seems like a stretch.

Meanwhile, WWE's Damian Priest was cast in an unknown role for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." In 2024, he spoke with Insight with Chris Van Vliet about getting the part but played coy about why he didn't wind up in the final film, stating, "It's a long story, but basically it got taken away from me, but not from Marvel." It's a vague statement, and it's unclear if he even filmed anything for the "Black Panther" sequel. In this case, though, it appears there were other forces at play.

Still, while Priest's exclusion sounds like the result of things falling through before he filmed anything, it's a different story entirely with Seth Rollins and Lynch, who actually shot scenes. Due to the secrecy of Marvel projects and actors not wanting to disparage a potential future employer, it's unlikely we'll ever know the full stories of what happened to these scenes. Fortunately, all this still means Rollins, Lynch, and Priest still have clean slates to appear in future MCU movies that could be even bigger than what was planned originally.