In 2016, Joe and Anthony Russo's Captain America: Civil War will be launching what is known as Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But while the film is just the first piece in a rather large puzzle, evidently it will be immediately sewing seeds for Marvel Studios' biggest event yet: the two-parter Avengers: Infinity War, set to play out in 2018 and 2019.
Chris Evans, who will obviously be headlining Captain America: Civil War, recently chatted with MTV about his role in the 2016 blockbuster, and while answering the question of whether or not the movie will feel more like another Avengers title, the actor revealed that what will go down in the movie will set the stage for the big time arrival of Thanos and his epic quest to collect the Infinity Stones and acquire the powers of a god. Said Evans,
Captain America: Civil War is the jump-off into The Avengers: The Infinity War. Civil War is going to be the setup for the real battle. So yeah, there are a lot of people - a lot of people in Cap 3.
This is definitely an interesting quote, but there are definitely multiple ways to interpret what he is saying. On the most basic level, he may simply be saying that Captain America: Civil War is in part setting up The Avengers: Infinity War by simple nature of being the first movie in Phase Three. The most extreme way to take what he's said is that the movie will feature events that will directly fuel the plot of the two-part epic (like the introduction of a new Infinity Stone, perhaps). It will be interesting to see how the connection winds up being made, given that Civil War is very much an Earth-bound story while Infinity War will very likely involve a great deal of cosmic action.
As for the last part of Chris Evans' statement, he definitely isn't exaggerating, as Captain America: Civil War will have an ensemble that should rival the team put together by Joss Whedon in both The Avengers and The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Joining Evans in the movie will be Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Anthony Mackie as Falcon, Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier, Frank Grillo as Crossbones, Daniel Bruhl as Baron Zemo, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, and a player-to-be-named-later as Spider-Man. Exactly how screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus will fit them all into the narrative is a bit of a mystery at the moment, but it's one that we're eager to unfold.
Captain America: Civil War has reportedly already started production down in Atlanta, Georgia, and will be heading to theaters on May 6, 2016.
