When Black Widow catches up with David Harbour’s Red Guardian in the present day, he’s in a Russian gulag arm-wrestling his fellow inmates and telling tall tales about his encounters with Captain America. Eventually, one of the inmates, played by the towering Dutch bodybuilder Olivier Richters, sits down for a match and pokes a major hole in one of Red Guardian’s stories about fighting Cap. Before brutally breaking the massive inmate’s arm, Red Guardian refers to the man as “Ursa,” which immediately caught the attention of Easter egg-obsessed Marvel fans.
In the comics, Ursa Major is the codename for Mikhail Ursus, a member of the Russia fighting team, the Winter Guard. More importantly, Ursa Major is a mutant whose power is transforming into a large walking, talking bear who’s gone up against several of Marvel’s heavy-hitters. While there’s been not confirmation from Marvel that the MCU version of Ursa has the same origin as his comics counterpart, Richters is now claiming that his character is, in fact, a mutant. If true, this would make Ursa the first mutant to appear in the MCU.
Via Richters’ Instagram:
After two years I can finally tell who my character is: Ursa Major
: the first mutant (X-Men) to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. … Ursa is part of the Winter Guard, noted for being “Russia’s answer to the Avengers”. His power transforms him into an incredible bear, transcending The Hulk in size. Ursa appears many times in the comics fightning Wolverine and The Hulk. When production on set told me who I really was in Black Widow I let some tears in my hotel room, because my movie dream became true: being a official comic super Hero. I can only hope Marvel will bring back Ursa in full form
You can see Richter’s full post below. He’s the hulking 7′ 2″ beast on the right making his fellow bodybuilder, Tony Montalbano, look like a small child.