What Happened To Rosa Salazar’s Diamondback in CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD?

Back in May of 2024 I profiled the McDonald’s Happy Meal featuring CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (click here for that profile). We looked at the toys, the boxes and even the accompanying app game for hints about the movie. Today I saw the movie, and while I have plenty of thoughts, one of the most surprising is the complete and total disappearance of Rosa Sanchez as Diamondback. Diamondback, Rachel Leighton, is a member of the Serpent Society, and presumably a villain in the film. Diamondback had her own happy meal toy and was even featured on the box – and in the accompanying story app. Even as of a few weeks ago, Diamondback was being profiled as appearing in BRAVE NEW WORLD as of two weeks ago on Collider.

So what happened? In the comics, Rachel Leighton’s Diamondback is one of the founding members of the Serpent Society. Diamondback is a very grounded hero that is a gymnastics specialist and is skilled at throwing sharp objects. She is well-versed in spy-craft and espionage and fits well as a compliment for a Captain America story line.
Broadly, Diamondback starts out as an antagonist to Captain America but develops feelings for him over time – eventually compromising her allegiance to the Serpent Society – and ends up helping him take out the Serpent Society and Viper in particular. She goes on to become a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. In my opinion, had Diamondback’s story arc remained in the film, we would have seen a similar arc in BRAVE NEW WORLD.

The Serpent Society is a league of supervillains all with snake-themed powers and all organized by Sidewinder aka Seth Voelker. Voelker (portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito) ended up being one of the secondary antagonists of BRAVE NEW WORLD. According to websites like Emergency Awesome, Voelker was a last minute addition to the film. Original the Serpent Society was to be represented by Diamondback and her counterpart Cobra (played by WWE wrestler Seth Rollins). In fact the dup was seen in stylized, presumably Serpent Society, attire in various paparazzi set photos throughout production.

But both Diamondback and Cobra are nowhere to be found. And interestingly Sidewinder appears to have been re-imagined to a much more grounded version of a Serpent Society villain complete with patch logos on his Kevlar vest – and presumably similar to the less stylized versions of MCU characters of Phases 1-3.

If we look at the set photos of Diamondback and the Diamondback toy – we can observe that she definitely has a costume change at some point in the film – going from these stylized almost Dan O’Bannon (RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD-esque) inspired fatigues to a more traditional MCU tactical suit as seen in the toy and the colors of which mirror her comic book version quite well. I am assuming in the original film she originally starts as an antagonist – stealing the adamantium sample from the Japanese, similar to what Sidewinder does – and then after realizing that The Leader is playing both her and Cobra, breaks from him and works with Cap and Falcon and Sabra aka Ruth Bat-Seraph to take down the Leader and ultimately Red Hulk.

In the original Happy Meal box art, we see Diamondback pictured alongside both Captain America and Falcon. And at the time that I saw this box art I assumed that Sabra would actually be a villain or a grey-ish character (similar to Natasha in IRON MAN 2). There is a mini-game in the story app that reveals an unknown female character robbing a bank. Maybe this is meant to reference Diamondback and Cobra’s robbery of the adamantium (something we noticeably never see in the film – rather it is just a given that Sidewinder is trying to sell it).

Ultimately, Diamondback’s involvement in the film may have been cut for tonal reasons as her and Cobra’s looks seemed more stylized than the ultimate Serpent Society portrayal seen in the film. Diamondback’s role may also have been cut as the Serpent Society may have had a more prominent role in a grander story that got cut down over the course of re-shoots. Her role may just not have “fit” as a more grounded and smaller Serpent Society was needed for the ultimately narrative that focused more on the conflict between The Leader and Thaddeus Ross. Either way. It is yet another bummer in the promising career or Rosa Salazar as she was great in the MAZE RUNNER but that series never really found a huge audience and fizzled out and later went on to star in BATTLE ANGEL: ALITA which was a fan favorite that unfortunately did not get a sequel.

I really hope we get to see Rosa Salazar’s version of the character in some fashion or another – either deleted scenes or a future film – as I was really looking to see Diamondback – and her portrayal of the character specifically, on the big screen.