Rosa Salazar Reflects on Being Cut from Captain America: Brave New World

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Deana Carpenter is a Movies & TV News Reporter at CBR. Before joining the team, she worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Almanac and spent more than 15 years as a freelance newspaper reporter. With a background in journalism and media, she brings strong reporting experience and a passion for storytelling to her coverage of film and television.

The planned Marvel Cinematic Universe debut didn’t pan out like one actor thought it would. The MCU’s Captain America: Brave New World, which hit theaters in February 2025 and starred Anthony Mackie as the titular hero, seemingly had its fair share of villains with one notable exception.

Rosa Salazar, known for her starring role in James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel (2019), had been cast to play Rachel Leighton, also known as Diamondback, in Captain America: Brave New World. While Salazar filmed some scenes for the movie, she was ultimately cut from the final theatrical release. Salazar shared her feelings on being removed from the MCU sequel in an interview with Collider. Salazar’s version of Diamondback was set to share scenes with Seth Rollins’ Klaus Voorhees/King Cobra, but Rollins, who played a Fellow Serpent Society Member, also ended up being dropped from the final cut.

When asked what it was like being cut from Brave New World, Salazar began, “Oh, that’s so interesting, right?” She then further elaborated on the matter. “Well, from my, I mean, I’m just a hired gun in that situation,” Salazar said.

“You know, like, the call came in. I answered. My friend, Julius Onah, was directing it. I think…I think there were some…look…films don’t always come out the way you think they’re going to come out. You need to tool,” Salazar elaborated. “You need sometimes, you need to cut this, you need to do that. So I take zero personally in this business, because if I did, I would not be this pretty,” Salazar joked.

She continued, “But, I think that it just wasn’t working, and there was a whole faction of like villains. It was me and it was three other brilliant people. I think it just…the film wanted to be something else.”

In the comics, Rachel Leighton/Diamondback is a founding member of the Serpent Society, a grounded hero and a gymnastics specialist with skills that include throwing sharp objects. She starts out as an antagonist against Captain America, but then ends up catching feelings for the hero. Eventually, in the comics, Diamondback helps Captain America take out the Serpent Society, and in particular, Viper, and then goes on to become a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Salazar Understood the Decision as a Filmmaker

Diamondback stands next to Captain America

Salazar then reflected on her own experience making a film - the 2017 short, Good Crazy. “I mean, I remember… this is a small, very small thing, compared to that, but when I made my short film, I based it around this one scene that I thought was hilarious, and it didn’t make it in, you know. We had Cynthia Stevenson in that, and it just didn’t make it in. It just wanted to be something else, so I think it’s just that. We just wanted to be something else,” Salazar said.

Ultimately, Mackie’s Captain America would face several villains in Brave New World, including Sidewinder, played by Giancarlo Esposito, a mind-controlled Isaiah Bradley, played by Carl Lumbly, The Leader/Samuel Sterns, played by Tim Blake Nelson, and, of course, Red Hulk, played by Harrison Ford.

Things may not have panned out for Salazar’s MCU debut, but she’s still holding out hope that there will be a sequel to Alita: Battle Angel. She recently told Collider that Alita: Battle Angel 2 could still come to fruition. “I’m always bringing up Alita,” Salaza said. “It still might [happen].” She added that Cameron, who wrote the first Alita movie, is still very much involved with the franchise. “He’s got the set. We’ll have [James] Cameron just as soon as this next Avatar…” Salazar teased.

MCU fans can stream Captain America: Brave New World, albeit without Salazar, on Disney+.