For most of his career as Captain America, Steve Rogers has had the moral high ground when it comes to the people he’s fighting. From battling the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger to uprooting HYDRA in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, his adversaries have always been people seeking to wreak destruction. For Captain America: Civil War, however, that won’t be the case, as the Star Spangled Avenger won’t have a clear-cut main antagonist to battle.
Just like the original Civil War story, the 2016 blockbuster will see the MCU’s superheroes taking different sides on registering with the government, and Chris Evans told Empire (via ComicBookMovie) that since the conflict is colored in shades of gray, the Star Spangled Avenger will have trouble knowing what to do. Evans said:
This is one of the first times Steve doesn't know what side he's on or what the right answer is. With the first Captain America [movie], I think we can all agree that Nazis are bad. The aliens are no good either; we can all get on board with that notion. This conflict is more mirroring that which we deal with on a daily basis, where it's just different points of view. There's no clear right, no clear wrong, and it's hard for him to understand the right move.
The issue at the forefront in Captain America: Civil War is whether superheroes should be supervised by the world’s governments and work under a set of rules. Captain America is against operating under these regulations, while his Avenger teammate Iron Man is in favor of working with these ruling bodies. This will drive a wedge in the superhero community, leading Cap to ally himself with fellow anti-registration advocates Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, Agent 13, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man. They will be battling Iron Man’s team of pro-registration supporters: War Machine, Black Widow, Vision, and Black Panther. No one is right or wrong here, but their disagreement will make it harder for Steve to decided what the right thing to do is.
Despite the moral complexities of this conflict, Captain America: Civil War won’t be without any villainous presence. Frank Grillo is reprising Crossbones, and it’s implied that he’s involved with the incident that leads to the Sokovia Accords being drafted. Daniel Brühl is also appearing as Baron Zemo, though directors Joe and Anthony Russo have previous said this version of Zemo is radically different from his purple masked-comic book counterpart. One would imagine that Zemo has some kind of nefarious hand in the proceedings, but it remains to be seen whether Steve will actually fight Zemo in the climax or even discover his role in these events.
We’ll see Steve Rogers struggle with these new developments when Captain America: Civil War is released on May 6, 2016.
