Captain America: Civil War is basically Avengers: 2.5. That’s what Anthony Mackie said of the third installment, and the evidence supports that. Though Marvel reiterates that this is indeed a Captain America movie, nearly every major Marvel hero will be popping up with the exception of Thor and Hulk. However, Kevin Feige recently revealed that, even with all this incredible talent, the film won’t feel like an Avengers in-betweener.
IGN caught up with the president of Marvel Studios to talk about the MCU moving forward. As Feige explained, The Winter Soldier was another movie that had a lot of characters, and that film was more of a confined thriller than an Avengers-level event. Though, to play devil’s advocate, The Winter Soldier doesn’t have anywhere near as many major MCU characters as Civil War will have.
To further combat the film’s scale, Feige said,
Our screenwriters Chris Markus and Steve McFeely are excellent at giving each character just enough. They're not full arcs for everybody; it's just enough that their presence is felt and important, but that the very clear single story that is being told is being served at all times.
They certainly had their work cut out for them. Civil War features Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Falcon (Mackie), Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), and War Machine (Don Cheadle). And that’s not even including the villains and supporting characters. However, there’s a reason why the film is a Captain America film and not, say, an Avengers installment. The story will still focus heavily on the development of Steve Rogers.
Civil War takes its inspiration from the comic book story arc of the same name. It picks up with Captain America leading his new Avengers on missions, but an international event involving the team prompts the governments of the world to jointly pass harsher restrictions on superhuman activity. Evans recently explained that Tony Stark feels the heroes should submit and sign these accords, while Steve Rogers is untrusting of S.H.I.E.L.D.-esque organizations in light of the events of Cap 2.
Joe and Anthony Russo return to direct Captain America: Civil War after knocking The Winter Soldier out of the park. Markus and McFeely also wrote the script for that film, which is one of Marvel’s best films to date, so there are high expectations for the next one. But we have confidence they’ll succeed again.
Captain America: Civil War will hit theaters on May 6, 2016.
