Hydra's quiet scientist
Zola is the opposite of his boss. The Red Skull is all theatrics and ambition, while Zola peers through round glasses, frets about the details and builds the weapons that make Hydra frightening. He is a coward in a fight and a genius in a lab, and the films use both sides of him.
He is also one of the few MCU villains who crosses eras. His early scenes take place in the Second World War. Decades later, his influence still shapes the modern world, which is why he matters far more than his limited screen time suggests.
Zola's appearances in order
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011, film, essential)
- Marvel's Agent Carter (2015, series, optional): a brief guest appearance
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014, film, essential)
- What If...? (2021, animated series, optional)
The two films form the core of his story. What If...? is an anthology set in alternate realities, so its versions of Zola do not change what happened in the main timeline.
Key scenes to watch for
In The First Avenger, watch the Hydra base in Italy where Steve rescues captured soldiers. One of them has been strapped to Zola's table, and the experiments carried out there echo through the rest of the Captain America films. Later, a daring raid on a train puts Zola in Allied hands, and the way he is questioned tells you exactly what kind of man he is.
His comeback in The Winter Soldier is one of the strangest scenes in Phase 2. Steve and Natasha follow a trail to an old army base and find something they did not expect. What Zola tells them there explains how Hydra hid in plain sight for generations, and it reframes much of what the audience thought it knew about S.H.I.E.L.D.
Allies and enemies
His most tragic link is to the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. Zola's work on Bucky during the war is the seed of everything that later happens to him. Steve Rogers, of course, is Hydra's great enemy. Peggy Carter and the Strategic Scientific Reserve are the people who capture Zola, and their choices after the war turn out to have long consequences. In the present day, Nick Fury is shaken to learn how much of his agency's history Zola touched.
Toby Jones as Zola
British character actor Toby Jones plays Zola and also voices him in What If...? He makes the scientist twitchy and almost comic, which makes his cruelty more disturbing when it shows. Jones is a familiar face in a huge range of work: he voiced Dobby the house-elf in the Harry Potter films, played Truman Capote in Infamous and co-starred in the gentle British comedy Detectorists.
Recommended order
Watch The First Avenger first. It establishes Zola, the Red Skull, Peggy and Bucky in one go, and it sits near the very start of the MCU timeline. Then move to The Winter Soldier, ideally after The Avengers, so you know where S.H.I.E.L.D. stands before Zola returns. Save What If...? for later. It is fun once you know the main films well, since each episode twists events you have already seen.