Daniel Brühl’s Baron Zemo has to be viewed as one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most unsung characters, and that was long before he burst back onto the scene and became a meme in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Captain America: Civil War‘s primary antagonist almost succeeded in tearing the Avengers apart from the inside out, and he certainly fractured the relationship between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers almost beyond repair. He doesn’t posses any superpowers, and he didn’t have an army doing his bidding or a MacGuffin capable of destroying the world, he was just a very smart man driven by vengeance.
When he returned in the recent Disney Plus series, Zemo was positioned as more of an antihero, and his reinvention was fantastic. Most fans thought he’d be the big bad of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but he instead became a loose ally of Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, and of course there was that showstopping dance number.
The finale looked to have set him up for a recurring role even further down the line, and we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us the project was in development long before it was officially confirmed – that Zemo will return with a vengeance in Captain America 4 by re-embracing his villainy and trying to kill the title hero.
Specifics remain unclear, but looking at The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s ending, it might see him teaming up with John Walker in the employ of Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine as part of the Thunderbolts, though it’ll be difficult for fans to hate Zemo again in Captain America 4 given his newfound status as a cult hero.