What to expect for Sam in 2026 ?

I'd love to say Happy New Year but we all know it will be a shit clown show again as we fall deeper into fascism everyday and everywhere so I'll just say hi folks. 2025 gave us MCU Sam and I thought it would bring me a lot of Sam stuff (let it be his presence in games or merch or comics), but things didn't go as planned. The boy was heavily censored, making him flat and boring to the audience (unless you're absolutly insane like me and look for all the very details about him). The reason to this lack of merch is also a last minute design change (that I personally deeply appreciate, we talked about it here). So what now ? Immortal Hulk is over but at least we had Captain America Brave New World to keep us entertained until 2025 through interviews and clues and crumbs of informations. But now the movie is out and over too so what's left ? Not a lot, but not a "nothing either". I'll cut this post in two parts, part one is what we have coming Sam related, part two will be his theorical future. Part 1 : Upcoming stuff Comics wise, we have a very nice short run featuring him as the main antagonist atm : Hulk Smash Everything by Ryan North and Vincenzo Carratu.

It's a 5 issues short and light story about Sam sending Hulk through time to kill him while cosplaying as the Sorcerer Supreme. It's pretty dumb, in a very good positive way. Sam is very well written, let it be through his childish impatience, his annoying egocentrism and overly confidence or his very sexy sass. He is enjoying every single seconds of his encounter with Hulk, like a cat playing with his prey and that's when Sam's writing is at its peak in my opinion, when he's having fun with nefarious plots (like Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, like the Peter David version). Vincenzo Carratu's arts are absolutly beautiful, Sam never looked so good.

I'm enjoying each panel of this story, it's a very nice read that I'd recommend to any Sam simp out there (so that would be 4-5 persons in the World). Weirdly enough the comics seems to focus a bit more on Sam than it does on Hulk (to my own pleasure of course, I'm not complaining). So give it a try, it's nice to take a break from all the horror of the current Infernal Hulk, as good as it is (we'll go back to that in a moment by the way). Merch wise we have two Sam coming out this year. First of all we have the boy coming to Marvel Crisis Protocol with Red Hulk and She-Hulk :

I'll be 100% honest, I don't know shit about this game (though I'll take Sam 'cause as you know I'm trying to get my hand on every single Sam merch in the World, which can be hard 'cause while there's not a lot of stuff, it's very expensive or rare shit lol but I'm not so far from my goal atm, I'm working on a Sam masterlist including all his comics/game/screen appearences and merch but it will take times). These minifigures look super good though so I might even take the full set. I love how he's riding a bot, it's super cool. Very glad they took his modern design also, they tend to focus on the orange and yellow one and don't get me wrong, I love it, but I'm getting a bit tired of it, it feels like the easy lazy way to represent him at this point. I don't know who made these concept arts also, if you know lemme know so I can credit them but DAMN, this Sam art goes so so hard, I'm absolutly in love with it.

From what I saw it seems like a Warhammer kind of game, apparently you assemble and paint the minifigures yourself and I don't know shit about figure painting so it scares the hell out of me, might take several Sam (to keep one unpainted and to try to properly paint him after a few attempts lol). I might be used to draw but painting a figure is a whole different thing that I'm not familiar with. I'll try my hand on it 'cause it's fun but if I mess up I'll probably end up commissioning someone lol. I did try Warhammer when I was 8, once, painted one Skaven and that was it. The reason I stopped doing traditional arts is because for one it's expensive. Sure digital drawing is expensive too, in the way that you gotta buy a computer and a tablet but once it's here you draw until one of them stop working, but traditional arts require buying back everything you use. Let it be ink, paint, support etc... Of course you can doodle on everything and I keep doing that, but when it comes to more specific kind of arts you have to put the price and painting is one of them. Second, it takes some space and I terribly, terribly lack of space. I'm planning to move in with my fiance and finally get a real desk (hopefully this year but as time goes by it seems unlikely) and I hope it will be big enough to allow me to properly do tradi stuff again but in the meantime I avoid buying materials I won't use. Anyway, I'm disgressing. I'm looking forward these minifigures nonetheless (I don't know when they come out though, 2026 is all they said so far).

We have the Mezco Toys 1:12 collectible coming out around July 2026. Seems out of stock atm on the official website (waitlist being opened) but I'm sure you'll be able to find it on any shop selling Mezco stuff once it's out if you haven't secured a pre-order day one like my crazy ass. Remember what I say above about his design ? Well here we get the yellow one I was talking about. Again, I don't hate it. But I think this figure would have looked so much better if they gave him the modern outfit. The yellow looks way too "plastic", the grey could have looked more metallic. I wish they gave him a lighter shade of green also for his skin, but otherwise he looks very good. I like the accessories from Tales to Astonish and Incredible Hulk 115 and I see we have a lot of liberty to reproduce iconic poses in other screenshots from Mezco (on the link above) so I'm looking forward to it.

On the cards department :

Collecting everything Sam means collecting every Sam cards and this task is way harder than getting all comics or all toys or the toilet paper (it's a real things yes) and I'm missing a shit tons already but everytime I'm near completion there's a new Marvel set coming out with a Sam card and 10+ useless limited variants at an insane price (mostly because as a French I eat 20 bucks shipping for every single fucking card I buy) and I'm a moron so I take them all. In late December, around Christmas, we got a MCU card set (very nice one though) featuring MCU Sam. So it's now the 3rd official MCU merch existing (the first one being the artbook I showed here) and the second one a Captain America card set by Theory 11 that I'll mention right after that). Sure it's kind of a 2025 thing but it came out less than a week before new year so I'm including it here. I kinda wanted to collect this set but scalpers made sure it would be impossible to find boosters on sale so I stick to Sam. Anyway, this set is the Marvel Studios Topps Chrome, it includes around 200 bases card (understand by this 200 different characters) then each of these 200 bases card have around 20 to 30+ variants, which means there's more than 4000 cards. Sam has 32 variants if I remember well, the 23 bases variant, then you have the Snap version which has 4 variants, the Captain America version with also 4 variants and a sapphire version with 6. Each variants is limited to a different degree, basically you have the base without numbers, then you have /50, obviously limited to 50 copy World wild, /25, /15, /5 (following the same logic) for the Snap and Captain America, you have a lil' more for the sapphire and for the base you have from /200 to /5 with weird numbers like /76 and shit, it's an absolute chaos so here's a proper checklist for you :

Base Game :

• Geometric Refractor (Breaker Exclusive)

• Prism Refractor

• Rainbow Refractor

• Shimmer Refractor

• Sky Blue Raywave Refractor (Value Box Exclusive)

• Green Refractor /199

• Agatha Lava Refractor /150

• Thor Refractor /99

• Marvel Red and Black Lava Refractor /80

• Captain America Refractor /76

• Loki Refractor /75

• Gold Refractor /50

• Wave Gold Refractor /50

• Ms. Marvel Speckle Refractor /49

• Orange Geometric Refractor /25 (Breaker Exclusive)

• Orange Refractor /25

• Wave Orange Refractor /25

• Black Geometric Refractor /10 (Breaker Exclusive)

• Black Refractor /10

• Wave Black Refractor /10

• Red Refractor /5

• Red Geometric Refractor (Breaker Exclusive)

• Wave Red Refractor /5

Snap version :

• Base

• Golden /50

• Orange /25

• Black /10

• Red /5
  

Captain America Brave New World version :

• Base

• Golden /50

• Orange /25

• Black /10

• Red /5

Sapphire version :

• Green – /99

• Gold – /50

• Orange – /25

• Purple – /15

• Black – /10

• Red – /5

• Padparadscha – 1/1

In which of these 3 categories you also have a /1 superfractor version that I didn't include because it is what I like to call a schrodinger card. Like the name suggest, there's only one in the World, so unless you see it online through a sale or someone having it, it doesn't exist 'cause it's either in a booster that might never be opened, or it could also have been destroyed etc... You also have /1 printing plates. It's usually 4 plates (black, cyan, magenda, yellow) all with one unique copy in the World, I know they exist for the base version so they probably do for the Snap and Captain America BNW as well, the /50 to /1 variants aren't listed for them either and they exist, so I assume it might be a thing but again, until we see one we can't tell. I was able to get the 1/1 superfractor Snap MCU Sam card, as you can see on the picture above. I have a few /1 printing plates in my collection from previous sets, even some MCU Sam (from Incredible Hulk, a previous MCU set) signed by Tim Blake Nelson even (lemme brag), but it's the first time ever I actually have my hand on a /1 card "card" (like I said I have a few printing plate cards but it's another thing).

I'm not really collecting /1, as much as I wish I could get them all, it's impossible so I take them if I can afford it (if it's over 100 bucks I pass, unless it's a Sam card I love, for exemple there's a /1 on sale from a previous set atm but it's over 1000 bucks and it's ugly as fuck so it can go fuck itself). Every /1 card I have are cards you can no longer get, every /1 card someone else got and is keeping is a card I can't collect either, that's why I'm not really counting them and pushing you to do the same if you're into Sam cards. Keep in mind that this list is pretty much incomplet 'cause I saw some variants that aren't listed anywhere (like a /99 variant which isn't the Thor variant with a specific effect that I also saw on a /25 Sam, which is, again, different from the 3 /25 we have so I'll have to update that list eventually when I figure it out but I'll directly update it on the masterlist I'm working on if I ever finish it one day LOL)

Next we have the card set by Theory 11. I wasn't planning to talk about it here 'cause it came out a few months ago, but when I quickly mentionned it above it made me realized that I never talked about it and because it's Cap centered and barely any previews show MCU Sam, most people don't know there's actually one MCU Sam merch out there. So I figured I would show it here.

They have an official website but you can find these cards in a lot of game specialized shops (could even find one in France). It includes the Cap tetralogy so characters from The First Avengers, The Winter Soldier, Civil War and of course Brave New World. Making Sam happy is a weird choice but he does look like Tim so I like it. Theory 11 cards are very beautiful, this set didn't fail to reach their quality. Which reminds me that I should one day go back to the card set I started designing years ago but eventually stopped because of lack of time.

And to conclude this 1st part, we have Marvel x Magic The Gathering coming out in June :

We don't know if we're getting a Sam card, alone I mean, but we will at least have a card featuring this very nice villains illustrations. Which seems to be centered around MCU villains as you have either characters with a recent presence (Sam in Captain America BNW, Ghost and Taskmaster in Thunderbolts, Grim Reaper in Wonder Man, Titania in She-Hulk) and iconic villains (who also happen to be MCU villains) like Loki, Thanos, Doom, Kang, Ultron, Zemo, Abomination and MODOK. So the only exception would be for Mme Hydra and Absorbing man (who's Titania's man so maybe that's the reason he's here). I'm saying it seems to be centered around the MCU 'cause while everyone else can be explain, I don't see why you would put Ghost, Grim Reaper or Titania in your iconic villains otherwise. Most people don't know who the fuck they are. And if you wonder why no Spidey villains it's most likely because we have a Spider-Man Magic set already. I will probably (if I can afford it) collect them. I don't play Magic but I have a lot of friends who do and I have a few Spider-Man and Final Fantasy cards I've been given so I'll probably take a full display or whatever and if I like it I'll start a small Marvel collection (and of course if there's anything Sam other than this illustration, I'll take it).

That's it for what we know so let's now enter the pure speculation and theory part : Part 2 : Theories

Ok, so. I'll start with merch 'cause it will be quick. As you noticed, there's not a single MCU Sam figure, not even a Funko POP! (I mean, there's one of his first scrapped design but not one of his final one) or a Legends and they usually have everyone. The reason to that, like I said a lot already, is because of the last minute change occuring too late to produce merch (it was made 10 months before the film came out, it's way too short). While I wouldn't expect shit from Funko at this point because they're in a bad place lately, Legends is realizing a Deadpool vs Wolverine full set later this year, including characters we didn't have yet like Cassandra Nova, so I have hope we might see a Captain America Brave New World full set later as well. Not necessarly this year, most likely in 2027 or 2028 but it's a possibility. Though the movie being less successful than Wolverine, we can't be sure of it and maybe we're not getting shit. They're also going to release a Red She-Hulk figure and an Abomination with an Immortal Hulk head (very cool). Seems like Marvel is pushing a lot of gamma stuff lately, let it be comics wise with a lot of Planet Hulk/World War Hulk centered comics (Imperial, Planet Hulk, World War Hulk one-shot, Planet She-Hulk), in the MCU with the introduction of Skaar that we all want to forget about, She-Hulk but also the comeback of Ross and his introduction as Red Hulk, Sam and his somewhat but not complet introduction as the Leader, the very short comeback of Betty and Hulk's presence in Spider-Man Brand New Day. it makes me hope that Marvel has project for the Hulk lore, probably in the MCU, so they're slowly starting to bring the interest back. And that's the perfect introduction for the next segment of this part : what to expect MCU wise ? Well, like I said maybe there's a big Hulk project in the work, but we won't find out before Secret Wars is over, we'll have to be very patient for that. The problem is our gamma actors are getting old (I'm talking about Mark Ruffalo and Tim Blake Nelson who are both around 60) so I don't see them going for another decade of MCU movies (not like Tim had a lot of presence in it though), some are getting tired of Disney also, so I expect either a casting reboot after Secret Wars or a big Hulk project concluding Hulk's arc (or starting it at this point 'cause every important chara dev for him happened off screen). Sam might be a part of it and I hope he will 'cause I want him to confront Bruce about what happened to him eventually but seems like Marvel have other projects for that boy. Mark said he won't be in Doomsday. Granted you can't trust any actors on that matter atm, but it does confirm rumors about him being absent from Doomsday because of something happening in Brand New Day (maybe it's happening at the same time, like Ant-Man 2 happening during Infinity War) and he'll be there in Secret Wars. I don't really care honestly 'cause for one I don't really give a lot of shit about MCU Hulk since Ragnarok turned his inner conflict and mental illnesses into a freakin' ableist joke and since the Russo said he was too boring to be written 'cause they don't understand Hulk isn't just a cheated overpowered beast smashing shit. But second, it's kinda hard to care about a character when their writers don't, even if Bruce is my second all time fav character right after Sam. So atm my only interest for him is what he can bring to MCU Sam, who's basically a sandbox at this point, with every flaws it implies but also all the fun of having very unlimited roads ahead of him. Which leads us to Sam's future in Doomsday.

I do think having him, even as a cameo, is a possibility. There's a few reasons to that, first of all because he's the one warning Sam Wilson (The Captain America, leader of the Avengers might I add) about the upcoming threats. So we know he knows, Sam Wilson knows he knows, I can see him going back to the Raft to question him about that. We could also see him standing up next to Doom. I saw a lot of rumors about it. I don't give a shit about rumors, especially when it's about Sam, I randomly find them when I look for Sam news but I don't pay attention to them. They never have sources so it's not even something worth mentioning, but I find it odd how there's just so many rumors about Sam teaming up with Doom from so many different sources and all being so differents. "There's a post credit scene with Sam going to Doom" (it never happened), "Sam will be the MCU Maker and team up with Doom" "the Leader will have an important role in either Secret Wars or Doomsday or both" "Doom will create a team and Sam will be in it". Now the latest is the most credible of them and something I do somewhat expect so it's not really hard to come up with that rumor either and be right later lol.

In comics they did team up for years, until Doom betrayed Sam (which is what I expect if they do team up in the MCU, one betraying the other, I would even expect Sam to die but hey, the Green Door is a thing so whatever happens to him I'll bring him back LOL). So I wouldn't be surprised to see this boy in either Doomsday or Secret Wars. Sam has every reason to join Doom anyway 'cause when you think about it, if someone can create a World where Sam can have his life back, or at least "purge it" from all the injustices that led him here, it's Doom's Battleworld. And I'll say it again but it's not very smart of him to give himself up like that and sacrifice the little he had back without a way to escape in case of failure. What makes Sam a threat is how he's always ahead of everything and can counter every bad income. So if he surrended it should be because it will lead to something else and he needed to do that and be there for it to happen. He does that in comics too, going to prison from time to time to gather informations, to get ready for a bigger plan, sometimes just to chill and take vacations it seems (don't judge him).

It's hard to say 'cause Tim is a very good liar, but he did kinda implied he would comeback after Captain America during SDCC 2024 :

This moment was super cute (Tim's reaction to the crowd cheering at his return, argggh) but also very odd. Alright, I'm gonna go full conspirationist here but Tim saying "no spoilers I want them to bring me back" after he's done filming Cap 4 and so back already is weird. It's weird, but I didn't really pay attention to it (and nobody did apparently), until I saw Kevin Feige's reaction which is even odder. He put his hand on his ear, make a quick nod with his head and immediatly cut off whatever Tim was about to say "yeah it's been 16 years and he's back haha" and Tim being like "yeah right", Anthony Mackie laughing super hard as if he knew something we don't. It might be nothing, of course, buuuut it might also be Tim accidentally messing up in all this hype that I'm not sure he's so used to and talking a bit too much here and some live damage control from both him and Kevin and the way he says "yeah, right" kinda looks like a slight annoyance "I should have shut the fuck up" (but I don't know him so it's pure speculation here). However, when he takes all the needed time to think an answer, he's a very, very good liar and I suspect him to even left some clever hints here and there during Sam related interviews in the past. It's hard to say if he means what he's saying or not, if he chose this word over this one on purpose to lead us on a hint. He's too comfortable with acting and words to be easily lectured, basically. Recently he said, several time, that he would love to comeback as Sam (which brings me a lot of happiness btw, even if it never happens), the first time he did he also said it was hard to say if he has a future 'cause Marvel Studios keep changing their plans. which makes me think that he DID have a future at some point, like I theorized a few time here, but now it's uncertain because of all the changes they did. And so, maybe back in SDCC he knew he had one but in the meantime Marvel cancelled whatever project it was, it's sadly a strong possibility. In a more recent interview he said "I can confirm that if I have my way, they won't have to wait 16 years" (I identify as "they" here, please don't make me suffer 16 years again LOL) which of course can mean anything and nothing at all. It can be a teasing, or it can be just Tim saying that he really want to reprise the role and explore Sam again and send a message to Marvel.

I don't wanna develop too much hope for MCU Sam 'cause if he doesn't comeback in Doomsday or Secret Wars I'll feel disappointed over my own expectations and as much as I rationalize it, I'll still feel disappointed. So the best way for me to appreciate the movie is to just think he won't be there and be very negative about it. Which is why unless I have an actual official confirmation (and I kinda hope I won't get any if he's back so I can fully appreciate that in the theater and have a great experience) I will keep in mind he won't be back and sabotage my own theories over it, even inconsciously, to force myself to not believe in it. So all I'm saying is, there's a possibility, but it's still a small one. And comics wise ? What about him ? The main run I mean. Well, like I said I'm a pessimist when it comes to Sam and I'd rather keep my hope low, but given the current run seems to directly follow Immortal Hulk and involve (and add to) The One Below All/The One Above All's lore, there's a not-so-low chance we do see Sam at some point. He is TOBA's herald after all, somewhat. Seems like TOBA needed BOTH Hulk and Sam to complet its circuit, it never worked with Brian (even if he has Sterns cursed blood too) and it keeps killing any other gamma irradiated when TOBA tried to "wear them as a mask". Only for Sam did it work well.

Sure, Immortal Hulk left him depowered and happy to be, but let's remember the Leader isn't really Sam (or not fully at least). We did saw a freaky baby Leader at the end of Cates' run and this current one is aknowledging and following Cates' work as well. I have suspicions of Sam being involved since Incredible Hulk vol.4 14. In this one you see Bruce trapped in his mindscape talking with a bird, which he immediatly identify as Rick, guiding him in this Hellish landscape.

At the end of this issue, it is revealed to be Hulk torturing Bruce, basically. But still, there's a few odd things about it and strong coincidences that gave me a little bit of hope. First of all, Sam did take the identity of Rick and Hulk to trick Bruce before, in Immortal Hulk, to drag him to TOBA. The way Rick/Hulk talks and tricks Bruce is very similar to Sam. I also think it's very unlike Hulk to torture Bruce like that. Yes he's angry, but his goal is to get rid of Bruce, keeping him away, Hulk isn't the kind of gamma lad who would punish you through mind games. Sam, however, it's his signature. Now there could be two reasons to bring Sam. First of all, as TOBA's herald and so to fight the Elder (or now the Infernal Hulk). After all, they freed "Sam", not "the Leader" and we do see him crossing a Green Door in Cates' ending. And where does "Rick/Hulk" brings Bruce ? To a Door.

The way he talked here "see how pointless it all was" was very Sam of Hulk. In Cates' run, it seems like Bruce was kind of influenced by Sam, there's a few things hinting at that. First of all his sudden burst of egocentrism. Granted Bruce always had a lot of ego, but not in this way, not with contempt and a smirk, it was always a cold depressed kind of ego. Second, you could see it through his haircut and the way he stands (like Sam, in both case). It's hard to tell if the initial idea was to have "Sam is controlling Bruce" as a big reveal, it seems like it, but as you know Cates went into an accident, lost his memory in the process, didn't finish Hulk and we got a rushed poor ending because of that and what will stay in Hulk's history as the worst run ever. Of course I don't blame Cates over this, it's an accident, though I do blame Marvel who pushed him to write shit he didn't want to before that, pushing him into a burnout even before the accident and making him hate every second of work on his Hulk run. The reason this run is so bad isn't just because of this accident, it was already terrible prior to that because of Marvel forcing events Cates didn't want and forcing him to turn a 5 issues long fun and light story he wrote prior to Immortal Hulk, which wasn't supposed to be canon to 616, into a long follow up. Of course it couldn't work. Adding to that his online harassment by Hulk readers even before his run started because they were upset Immortal Hulk ended (I blame them too). But I'm not here to throw some salt, I'm just giving a bit of context as to why it's so hard to guess what Sam is gonna do next. That being said, the second reason to bring Sam back would be to side with the Infernal Hulk to regain his power and body, eventually, unless he wanna stay separated but given how hard he worked to reach himself back in Thunderbolts I think he do like his little "Sam" and would like to be complet with him again. It would be cool to have, one day, a writer exploring this complicated love/hate dynamic between Sam and his Leader but I'm asking for too much given Marvel can't even spell his name.

What got me into thinking that bird was Sam in the first place was the orange color used for him, which was used in Immortal Hulk to hint at Sam's presence prior to the reveal that he was here all along. It's hard to say if that's the case here because Bruce's mindscape is very, very similar to the Below Place. You see destroyed building, you see a direct homage to Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delight like we see in the cover of Immortal Hulk 50, except it's Bruce and not Sam who's the half cutted egg thing, and, well, orange/red is also the color of the Below Place.

So it's hard to say. I really want to believe, there's a few things pointing at him, but all these things can easily be explained by something else. Beside, I do know Sam very well, to the point of easily guessing when he's around, but not every writers do and while sometime they left some smart hints (like Immortal Hulk and Peter David's run where he was supposed to be dead before we see his bald McFarlane mutation), it's often coincidences from writers who aren't that familiar with him. Still, it's a Sam thing to show up at the very end in a "it was me all along" way, so if he is behind this in a way or another, we'll find out later. Phillip Kennedy Johnson seems to enjoy bringing back Hulk's foes and Easter Eggs so like I said the odd to see that boy in this run isn't 0%. Though, it's also a Sam thing to show up once a decade in the main run... I really want to see Nic Klein drawing him. He is, in my opinion, one of the best Hulk artist we ever got (if not the best) and I'm DYING to see what he would do with Sam. All his monsters' design are peak, the way he draws Bruce is awesome (I'm OBSESSED with his long hair), I want to see what he would do with Bruce.

That's all we can expect for him, for now. Of course I'll keep you updated on everything coming up through this blog and my social medias (not like many people care tho but I'm glad to serve the 2-3 people who do LOL). In the meantime please take care and remember : happiness is a form of resistance. Until next time, enjoy~