The team behind “Captain America: Brave New World” recently opened up to The National about introducing Ruth Bat-Seraph (aka Sabra) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a decision that sparked controversy when news broke in September 2022 that “Unorthodox” Emmy nominee Shira Haas was cast in the role. Sabra is an Israeli superhero and a Mossad agent in the comics. The character’s inclusion in the MCU raised concerns among Palestinians, although Marvel assured fans worldwide that Sabra would be “reworked” for the big screen.
Just how Sarba has been reworked for her MCU debut is now being revealed. After months of speculation and rumors that Marvel had dropped the character’s Israeli ties (which then sparked backlash in Israel), “Captain America: Brave New World” producer Nate Moore now confirms Sabra is an Israeli in the final movie.
“She’s Israeli, but she’s not Mossad. Now she works in the U.S. government,” Moore said.
“What we thought was interesting was a lot of the characters in the film revolve around President Thaddeus Ross [Harrison Ford[,” he continued. “Ruth works within the government under Ross, so her perspective on that character and Sam’s perspective sort of put them on a collision course. She’s first-generation Israeli, but she works within the U.S. government.”
Sabra in the MCU is not a Mossad agent but a former Black Widow, and Moore stressed that reworking the character for “Captain America: Brave New World” had little to do with backlash and more to do with ensuring the superhero fit more seamlessly into the film universe that’s already been created.
“We try to take the essence of a character but reinterpret it in a way that we find interesting,” Moore told The National. “When we made the ‘Black Widow’ movie, we realized there was an opportunity to connect that mythology to characters that we thought were interesting and maybe didn’t want to translate as one-to-one from publishing…The Ruth Bat-Seraph you meet in the film has very much, I would argue, the attitude of the character from publishing, but the backstory is different.”
And it’s not just Sabra’s ties to Mossad that have been cut from the MCU. As Moore explained, the character also no longer has such mutant abilities as superhuman strength and speed.
“She’s no longer a mutant. She’s a part of the red room [from ‘Black Widow’],” Moore said. “You want to make the best version of a character – be honest to the roots of the character without not necessarily doing what publishing did. We weren’t about to put her in a feather boa and have her throw diamond earrings at people [such as in the comic books] but we did like the attitude of the character.”
“And to be quite honest, we’d been wanting to work with Shira Haas for a while,” he added. “She’s so talented, she’s so unique, both in her look and her performance style. We thought this was the perfect marriage.”
Sabra first appeared in the comics in the early 1980s courtesy of “The Incredible Hulk.” Her presence became a point of contention as it brought Marvel comics firmly into the Israeli-Palestine conflict. In a 1981 Hulk comic, for instance, Sabra shows little remorse over the death of a Palestinian boy until the Hulk teaches her about human values (via The New York Times).
Head over to The National’s website to read more about “Captain America: Brave New World.” The Marvel tentpole opens in theaters Feb. 14 from Disney.
