The upcoming Captain America: Civil War will represent one of Marvel’s biggest films to date. Although it tells a grounded, political story free from aliens and alternate dimensions, the film remains packed to the brim with iconic Marvel characters. Considering the size and scope, the film would represent a daunting task for any filmmaker. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have proven themselves more than capable of helming a major Marvel film with minimal waste, but some portions of Civil War still wound up on the cutting room floor.
Joe Russo explained recently to CB that they had to remove one particular scene to lean out the run time of Captain America: Civil War. As he put it:
There was a scene between Natasha and T’Challa at the German Ops Center, halfway through the movie when he was sitting in that room. Cap and Falcon had been isolated in the other conference room. We didn’t feel like it was moving the story telling forward and they had already had a scene so it felt repetitive so it was something we excised from the movie.
While the Russos admit that they worked closely with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to ensure minimal wasted space in the script, some stuff still had to go. Although they didn’t cut much, the scene they cut involved Black Widow and Black Panther conversing at the German Ops Center. Apparently the scene slowed the movie down and felt redundant, so they ultimately opted to remove it from the final cut of the film.
The rough cut of Civil War clocked in at a beefy two hours and forty-one minutes, and the final cut of the film will still be fairy long at two hours and twenty-eight minutes. With that in mind, we as an audience probably won’t miss that scene very much.
However, although the Russos did not cut much from Civil War’s shooting script, the original draft of the film featured considerably more content. For example. they had originally intended to include Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp in the film’s major battle – presumably alongside Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang – but cut her from the final draft as well.
In the end we have to say we respect the Russos for leaning out the script so much before entering production. Their method of filming seems to run counter to that of director Zack Snyder, whose recent superhero showdown Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will run almost a full hour longer in its R-rated Director’s Cut. Civil War, by contrast, already seems distilled down to its most essential parts – although we won’t know for sure how well those parts work together until the film actually hits theaters.
We will bring you any and all updates related to Captain America: Civil War as they become available to us; the film will blast into theaters on May 6. Stay tuned for more details!
