Over the course of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark has battled terrorists, Whiplash, an alien invasion, an old rival, the murderous Ultron, and now he’s going up against his teammate Steve Rogers. As Robert Downey Jr. joked on the set of Captain America: Civil War, "Well it’s never fun when he’s in a good place is it?"
While the next installment of the MCU is still very much a Captain America story, Iron Man factors in heavily. Said co-director Joe Russo from the set of Civil War in Atlanta, his journey will take a dark turn.
Downey has been doing an amazing job in this film. He’s got a very complex arc, and I think it’s really, some of the more interesting stuff he’s done in a long time. He is fantastic in the movie. … I think you’re going to see a side of Tony Stark that you haven’t seen in any of the other films and he is just crushing it. Like, he’s fantastic. It’s a very, very complex, dark arc that he has in this film.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Stark was all about preemptively protecting the world by taking matters into his own hands. Watching that plan backfire in the worst way imaginable, he’s ready to embrace some government-imposed restrictions. Downey described the change in ideology as "a function of age" and compared Civil War to The Godfather of superhero movies.
It’s all talk until you start shooting, but I read their take on what the story was gonna be and I was like, 'Wow!' And they said, 'This is the Godfather of superhero movies, and I said, 'You just said that, and now you’re gonna be held to it.' Which in a way, it deflates itself. The same way that Todd Phillips called The Hangover Part 2... because he said, 'This is the Godfather of comedies.'
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Civil War sees another international incident involving the Avengers that prompts the passing of the Sokovia Accords, which impose harsher restrictions on superhero activities. As Cap (Chris Evans) avoids the government, which is also after his old buddy The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), lines are drawn as the star-spangled Avenger is pitted against Iron Man. Also featuring are Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Vision (Paul Bettany), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and Spider-Man (Tom Holland).
Find out which side (if either) will win when Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6. In the meantime, check out more coverage from our set visit, including Scarlet Witch’s biggest challenge and why Thanos won’t feature in the film.
