Minutes into the first fight scene of the new “Captain America: Brave New World,” a foe quips that the Captain America he dreamed of killing was bigger than current mantle-holder Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie.

The legacy of that patriotic moniker looms large over the film’s narrative — and is a central question for Marvel Studios’ overall franchise. How do you keep a beloved character, but reintroduce him on the big screen with a newer, though familiar, face?

It’s a billion-dollar question, particularly as Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Studios looks to recapture the audience interest and box office revenue it reaped with the films leading up to the 2019 blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame.”

The answer is: very carefully.

Mackie’s character, Wilson, has been in the franchise for years as fellow hero Falcon, introduced in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” After Chris Evans’ Captain America concluded his story in “Endgame,” he passed his shield to Mackie, who fully assumed his role as the new Cap in the 2021 Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”

The stakes of getting the handoff right are high. Nate Moore, a producer on the film and a longtime Marvel executive, calls the character a “cornerstone franchise” of the Marvel universe.

“We want to make sure that this movie works because Captain America is so significant,” he said. “It’s important for audiences to feel like, even with all the change … there is still a Captain America, he is still worthy, and he’s still out there, protecting people.”

A Marvel Comics staple, Captain America debuted in 1940 as Steve Rogers, a “super-soldier” who was injected with a serum that enhanced his physical abilities. Evans first took on the role in 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger,” anchored two more Captain America films and became the counterweight to Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.

But even as Evans’ portrayal ended, Marvel executives knew they wanted to maintain the spirit of what Captain America represented, Moore said.

“It’s always been about somebody who sees the dream of what America stands for and tries to embody that dream,” he said. “Even though we wanted to wrap up the story of Steve Rogers in ‘Endgame,’ we didn’t want there to be an absence of that feeling in the [Marvel Cinematic Universe].”

Maintaining that feeling — and character — is also crucial to the reconfiguration of the Marvel franchise, which has struggled in recent years to pump out consistent hits at the box office. Although last year’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” raked in more than a billion dollars, films such as 2023’s “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” received lackluster reviews and did poorly in theaters.

“Captain America: Brave New World,” which arrives in theaters Friday, is tracking for a projected $80-million to $95-million three-day opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, on a reported $180-million budget before marketing costs. Reviews, however, have been decidedly mixed.

That range would be in the ballpark of domestic opening weekend totals for standalone Marvel films such as 2021”s “Eternals” ($71 million) and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” ($75 million) as well as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” ($95 million).

The tracking is in line with the expectations for a restarted franchise, said Daniel Loria, senior vice president at Boxoffice Co., a theater data firm. Because Marvel is in a “rebuilding phase,” the financial prospects for the new film have to be “a little more grounded” for the studio, he said.

“We have to remind ourselves that Marvel is retooling with a new vision in some of these marquee properties,” Loria said.

With a subtitle that draws comparisons to Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel and Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the film embraces the sense of a fresh start, director Julius Onah said.

“We are resetting the universe of the [Marvel franchise],” he said. “I’ve always liked the sense of irony that comes in those words, ‘brave new world.’ So we are leaning into that irony. We are leaning into the unknown and the uncertainty.”

However, as a result of the interconnected storylines throughout Marvel and its strategy of using its movies as building blocks, the film will have to hold up on its own. It also has to drive audience interest to the studio’s next release, “Thunderbolts,” which is set to come out in May.

A consistent string of Marvel hits is key to Disney’s overall ambitions and Chief Executive Bob Iger’s efforts to turn the company around. Marvel is the highest-grossing movie franchise in history, and the studio’s popularity powers not just box office revenue, but also theme park visits and attractions, merchandise sales and streaming subscriptions.

The move to keep Captain America in the mix but have a new actor portray him could allow the franchise to reset, said Lilly Goren, co-editor of the book “The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe” and a professor of political science at Carroll University in Wisconsin.

A similar parallel exists with the three separate Spider-Man film series, in which the titular character is played by three actors, as well as the many reimaginings of Batman in the DC Comics film universe, though there’s less effort there at maintaining continuity and more focus on rebooting the series.

“It allows for the continuation of this popular cultural icon, while giving a lot of running room to redevelop the narratives around him,” Goren said. “It is a kind of reconfiguration of the superhero.”

That rethinking of Captain America is what attracted Onah to the project. Unlike Evans’ Captain America, who was essentially superhuman, Mackie’s character has no serum-enhanced abilities.

“It’s a wonderful way to evolve this character,” he said. “Part of what drew me to telling this story was a Captain America whose superpower is his empathy, his humanity. Not only is it something that is, I think, relatable in a very specific way, it’s something that is aspirational.”

There’s also special significance to Mackie, who is Black, now assuming the role of Captain America.

The implications of this were first explored in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which takes place shortly after Mackie’s character accepted Captain America’s shield. The show delves into “what that means, quite frankly, for a Black man to be handed a mantle that can be problematic, but also can be really inspirational,” said Moore, the producer. “And I think the character’s journey in that show was, the inspiration is worth it.”

The significance of having a Black Captain America today is that “America is for everyone,” he said. “It’s important for the audience to see themselves reflected in the character, and that reflection is not only a skin color, but it’s also morality and integrity.”

Vicky Kaushal is at the top of his game with back-to-back hits under his belt. He is now back with his new film, Chhaava, directed by Laxman Utekar.

The film has been released and has started off with positive word of mouth. Those who watched it in Mumbai are praising it highly, especially Vicky Kaushal’s

performance.

With strong word of mouth and impressive advance bookings, the film is expected to open solidly at the box office. Rashmika Mandanna plays the female lead, and her performance is also being widely appreciated.

Once again, she has delivered a hit with Chhaava. Now that the film is out for the public, it remains to be seen how the general audience will receive it.

Upstairs at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, Sean Baker is talking shop with veteran projectionist Ivan Rothberg as he’s threading the fifth reel of “Anora,” Baker’s Oscar-nominated crowd-pleaser that won top honors from the directors and producers guilds over the weekend.

Looking out the booth’s window onto the sold-out theater’s screen, we see that Igor (Yura Borisov) has just handed a red scarf to Ani (Mikey Madison) to buffer the frigid night air, so we have some time before Ani’s journey ends. We head to a tiny office around the corner where Baker plops down next to his wife and producing partner, Samantha Quan, and fellow producer Alex Coco. We’re surrounded by shelves stacked with boxes of Red Vines, Kit Kats and sparkling water. Quan grabs a pack of Cheez-Its. You take sustenance where you find it.

It’s been more than 48 hours since “Anora” swept top prizes at the Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America awards, and they still can’t believe it happened.

“When we got to the producers, I was just shut down for the night,” Baker says, noting the stress that came with winning the DGA and having to make a speech he wasn’t at all prepared to deliver. He won the DGA prize at 9 p.m., posed for pictures and then hopped in a car for the mile-long trip from Beverly Hills to Century City for the final moments of the PGA ceremony. “It was extremely weird to hear them call out ‘Anora.’”

“I thought we were going to blank the whole weekend,” producer Coco says. Referring to the Critics Choice Awards held Friday, he adds, “I figured it we didn’t win there, that’s our obituary.”

“I didn’t think of it that way,” Baker says, “because I don’t really know the game that well. People are telling me now that we’re actually in the conversation again because of these wins. See, I didn’t know these wins would get us back into the conversation.”

But then Baker, two weeks shy of his 54th birthday, never expected to be in the awards conversation in the first place. Adept at making movies illuminating the underrepresented, Baker broke through in 2015 with “Tangerine,” the micro-budgeted tale of two trans sex workers working at the seedy intersection of Santa Monica and Highland in Hollywood. Baker famously shot the movie on iPhone 5s.

He followed that two years later with “The Florida Project,” another look at people on the margins, in this case, the residents of a rundown motel in the shadow of Disney World. Willem Dafoe, playing the motel’s beleaguered manager, earned the movie’s only Oscar nomination.

“I thought, ‘OK, I don’t think I’m going to get any more higher-brow than ‘The Florida Project,’” Baker says. “Like, that’s the top of my brow there. So if they’re not into that, if I’m scaring people off with that, then I’m not meant for this world.”

Mikey Madison and Mark Eydelshteyn in the movie “Anora.”

(Neon)

Baker followed “The Florida Project” with “Red Rocket,” again mixing hilarity, honesty and heartbreak in its story of a middle-aged porn star fleeing Los Angeles for his small Texas hometown. And then came “Anora,” the fractured fairy tale about a Brooklyn sex worker’s heady and, ultimately, devastating relationship with the son of a Russian oligarch.

“There was not one moment when we were making ‘Anora’ that I was like, ‘I’m doing this for a mainstream audience,’” Baker says. “To tell you the truth, it was very like, ‘I’m making this for the people who like my crazy stuff. I’m making this for the people who like “Red Rocket.” I’m going to be giving it to them.’”

“Except for when we were leaving for Cannes and you said, ‘This is going to be a nice relaxing trip,’” Quan reminds him, teasing. “You thought it was too commercial, so it wasn’t going to win anything.”

“I also thought it was too funny,” Baker replies. “Historically, comedies haven’t won too many awards there.”

“Anora” ended up taking the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize. And Baker finds himself nominated for four Oscars, as a producer, director, writer and editor.

Which raises the question: Why, out of all of Baker’s films, is “Anora” the one that’s connecting with moviegoers and awards voters?

Baker shrugs his shoulders. “It’s very difficult to say. Maybe it’ll take a few years where you can look back at an era and have perspective on what was going on, culturally and politically.”

Coco thinks people are responding to the title character. Quan offers that it might be the “strange family” that forms between the film’s characters, all of whom are recognizable and human.

“And they’re all of a similar class,” Coco says, “all beholden to this family that has all the money. They’re trying to survive that.”

When Baker won the Palme d’Or, he shared a stage with George Lucas, one of his many heroes whom he has met the past few months, a list that includes Pedro Almodóvar and Christopher Nolan, the latter who presented him with the DGA award.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Baker says, noting how much he appreciates Nolan’s movies and work in film preservation. “So when I went up there, I was thinking I was definitely going to try to make him happy and talk about theatrical windows and shooting on film.” We all laugh. He turns to Quan. “Was he smiling back there?” She assures him he was.

Baker, left, speaks with fans after the screening.

(Kay Qiao / American Cinematheque at Aero Theatre)

Baker met another one of his idols a few days ago when he picked up the Los Angeles Film Critics’ Assn.‘s best picture award on the night that the group honored John Carpenter’s career. He didn’t know Carpenter would be there and Quan says her husband was “freaking out.”

“I’m never fully informing myself, so I didn’t know he was getting the career honor that night,” Baker says. “He’s such a hero. I still have the ‘Escape From New York’ poster on my wall. I had ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ above my bed in seventh and eighth grade. And, of course, ‘The Thing’ means so much to me.”

When the evening ended, Baker approached Carpenter and asked for a photo. The two posed together, giddily making metal signs with their fingers. If it’s not Baker’s most cherished moment from the past few months, it’s high on the list.

When I suggest that “Anora’s” ending, a perfect, ambiguous moment of release for its title character, might be another reason for its appeal, Baker circles back to Carpenter, saying he wished he had mentioned that aspect of the genre master’s filmmaking. Carpenter had a way with ambiguous endings.

“He taught me that,” Baker says. “All of my favorite movies have open endings. You’re putting the audience in an uncomfortable place where they’re asked to do the work. But too bad. It’s like, ‘I’m trying to respect you guys. I know you can do it.’”

The night they won the DGA and PGA honors, Coco headed to Akbar in Silver Lake with some friends. Baker and Quan went straight home to bed. The director had an early morning photo shoot he was leading the next day for W Magazine.

“I was buzzing,” Baker says. “It was hard to settle down.”

So how did you go to sleep?

Quan looks at me like I’m a child. She closes her eyes and mimes her head hitting a pillow. “I gotta go to sleep. If I don’t, I’m dead.”

“We’re trained to do that,” Baker says. “My brain is like, ‘If you don’t fall asleep, there’s going to be a domino effect.’”

This ability will come in handy over the weekend. Baker will be traveling to San Francisco on Thursday for an academy screening of “Anora,” then to New York on Saturday for the Writers Guild Awards and finally to London the next day for the British Academy Film Awards — though, apparently, much of this is news to Baker. (Remember that earlier comment about “never fully informing” himself?)

“Wait a minute,” he says, looking at Quan and Coco. “I’m doing WGA?”

“Yes, Saturday,” Coco tells him. “Then BAFTA Sunday.”

Baker slumps in his seat and starts laughing. Or is he weeping?

“Oh, God! Oh, God!” he says. He’s editing a movie he produced and co-wrote with Taiwanese filmmaker Tsou Shih-Ching titled “Left-Handed Girl,” and they’re trying to finish to make festival deadlines.

“I have like another 10 days,” he says, shaking his head.

“He’s had another 10 days for like 100 days,” Coco tells me.

“No, this is really pushing it,” Baker says. “It’s incredibly scary.”

This is scary? What about the Oscars?

“Well, one step at a time,” Baker says.

Rothberg doesn’t have any more reels to change. It’s time to head down to the theater for the Q&A. “Anora’s” journey is almost at an end.