The D23 2022 expo made some great announcements concerning the Marvel and Star Wars universes. One such announcement revealed that Tim Blake Nelson would be back as Marvel’s Samuel Sterns, AKA The Leader. The green man with the giant head was in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, back when Edward Norton was Bruce Banner.

In that movie, Samuel Sterns created a temporary antidote for Banner’s “Hulk problem.” When he tried to repeat the process for Emil Blonsky, he turned him into Abomination. When Sterns was thrown into the wall of his laboratory, he was injured and exposed to some of Bruce Banner’s Hulk Blood. Last we saw him, his brain seemed to be changing violently.

Now, Kevin Feige announced that Tim Blake Nelson will be back to reprise his role as Samuel Sterns in the upcoming MCU movie Captain America: New World Order. The Leader can connect many dots in the current MCU, as well as explain the significance of several things happening right now.

In the comics, The Leader was very involved with Hulk’s gamma radiation and various ways to travel through the multiverse. He was also a member of a particular incarnation of the Thunderbolts. Now that we know we’ll see him in New World Order, we ought to study up on the Leader. Who exactly was Samuel Sterns?

The Leader Had Humble Beginnings in Hulk

     Universal Pictures

Samuel Sterns didn’t start as an evil genius. Unlike Tim Blake Nelson in The Incredible Hulk, Sterns was actually a high school dropout. In the comics, he was just a regular guy who worked at a chemical plant. Sterns grew up in a fairly average family with an overachieving older brother. And like a lot of younger siblings, he often felt snubbed by his family, who would constantly shower his older brother with praise. One day, while working at the chemical plant, an accident caused a radioactive canister to break open, exposing Sterns to deadly levels of gamma radiation.

After surviving the accident at first, there were only positive side effects. Sterns returned home to find himself a thousand times smarter than he had been the previous day. He began reading at an incredible pace and retained information as well as a computer. But as time went on, his body continued to mutate. His skin turned green, and his skull grew in size. And a similar haircut made him look like a green Sinestro.

As his ego grew with his intellect, he became a criminal mastermind. He began to call himself The Leader and eventually made plans to take over the United States government. His plans led Bruce Banner to put himself between The Leader and his goals. After he was defeated, he lost his powers, leading him on a long journey to harvest more gamma radiation and work with a number of others who had also been exposed.

The Leader, the Multiverse, and Fun Facts

     Marvel Comics

The Leader is infamous for regularly being involved with the multiverse and raising people from the dead. He has died and resurrected numerous times, and his spirit has possessed and been possessed by many different beings. During the bulk of his many deaths, The Leader entered the Below-Place, the part of the universe that is below every other dimension, even hell. It is home to the One Below All, an ultimate being made purely of horror and chaos.

Each time The Leader went there, he was resurrected and eventually achieved some type of enlightenment due to his brief exposure to the afterlife. He began to gain awareness of his existence after his body’s death and saw himself passing through the Green Door each time. This Green Door served as an energy portal to the Below-Place, and once the Leader was aware of it, he began to study it. Much of The Leader’s continued search for knowledge is focused on the Green Door and traveling back and forth between Earth and the Below-Place.

The Leader was involved with General Ross’s Thunderbolts team and received red energy from the Red Hulk, making him Red Leader for a time. Another time he formed a supervillain cabal called Intelligencia based on the free exchange of villainous information. He also formed a sovereign city called Freehold that was only somewhat nefarious, as it housed the gamma-affected people from various accidents and supervillain battles.

Along with his superhuman intelligence, The Leader is also known to occasionally possess telepathic abilities. He also has some abilities related to his connection with the One Below All. Although he is canonically the Hulk’s nemesis, The Leader operates on a level that would see him involved with many other supervillains. His role in Captain America: New World Order could be as part of a group of supervillains, or it could imply that the Hulk might make an appearance. Either way, Tim Blake Nelson’s return as the Leader has exciting implications for the MCU.