While the next film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has Captain America’s name on it, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for the next proper Avengers movie. The movie contains so many of the universe’s existing roster, along with a handful of new faces, that it actually will contain more heroes than Avengers: Age of Ultron. Don’t be fooled however. According to star Chris Evans, Captain America: Civil War is truly a Captain America movie, just like the title says.
The difference here, according to the man who plays Captain America, is that while the movie is including a lot of different characters, it’s not about any of them. Instead, Captain America: Civil War will be about Steve Rogers. Speaking with Disney’s D23 Magazine (via Yahoo), Chris Evans explains that everything in the movie will be seen through the lens of The First Avenger. As it should be. He says:
Even though there are a lot characters, the focus is on Steve and his struggle. Especially his struggle with Tony Stark. … It’s exciting to see a guy who’s as optimistic and as selfless as Steve be met with letdown, betrayal, frustration, and selfishness. There are events and people in his life that test him — that challenge him and force him to reevaluate who he is and what he wants out of life.
When the Civil War storyline was told in the comics, it was one of Marvel’s major crossover events. This meant that it was taking place throughout multiple comic books at once. You could read Captain America’s book and get his perspective on the situation but you could also read Iron Man and then understand his feelings on the matter. By making the film version a Captain America movie, Marvel is forcing everybody to only see the conflict through one set of eyes. It will be interesting to see how this change impacts the story. It certainly has the potential to make those who side with Tony Stark look decidedly more like the "bad guys" than they necessarily did in the comics.
At the same time, telling the story from multiple perspectives may have been more than a little unwieldy. Trying to understand everybody's motivations would have been a lot to try and pack into a single film. If you’re going to choose one person to tell your story through, Captain America is likely the right guy. He’s had one of the more interesting character arcs through the MCU thus far.
The first Cap film was a fairly by-the-numbers, but brilliantly put together, WWII adventure story, like something you would have seen out of John Wayne. Then, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the character was thrown into an espionage movie where he wasn’t sure who he could trust. Now, in Captain America: Civil War, it looks like that ante will be raised as even the people that Cap thought he could trust turn out to be on the other side. Just how much more can Captain America take?
We’ll find out the answer when Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6.
