We’ve been enjoying the guessing game recently about what the subtitle of Joe and Anthony Russo’s Captain America 3 might be. The co-directors have been fuelling the fire by suggesting that the title has been in place for years now, and that the reveal will drastically change the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Naturally, that led Marvel fans to run wild with guesses, but allow us to take one possible storyline off of the table. Cap 3 likely won’t retell the Civil War plot from the Marvel comics.
Joe and Anthony Russo were speaking with Desde Hollywood about the DVD release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which in turn has become a promotional tour for their eventual work on Captain America 3. In this recent interview, they addressed the possibility that Civil War could be the basis of Steve Rogers’ next chapter. Basically, they shot it down.
Joe Russo says:
It’s complex. There are a lot of characters. Marvel doesn’t have ownership of some of the key players in that. [...] I don’t run Marvel, so I can’t say that it won’t happen, but I would say that it is highly unlikely."
The Civil War series stretched multiple issues over several months and involved the federal government launching a Superhero Registration Act. The storyline divides key Marvel heroes into two camps: one led by Captain America and the other led by Iron Man. Dividing Marvel’s two massive on-screen heroes carries certain appeal, for sure. But there are numerous obstacles that Marvel would have to overcome – not the least of which being that Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are a major part of Civil War, and those character still belong to Sony and Fox.
Now, does this mean Civil War is impossible? Actually, no. Deals could be happening behind the scenes to get characters on screen together. And when we interviewed the Russos, they hinted to us:
Do [the cameo heroes] have to be under contract with Marvel? Maybe they are at another studio. … Listen, when I started collecting, The Secret Wars was one of the first books I ever bought, so that’s always been an obsession of mine to see something of that scale done – a crossover. I don’t know if that would ever be possible, with all the different situations at the studios. But I would love to see a lot of characters on screen together."
Joe and Anthony Russo have been planting seeds left and right about a massive Marvel ensemble. The subtitle for Captain America 3 could melt the Internet when it finally drops. But it likely isn’t Captain America: Civil War. So what else could it be?
