Greetings, Fanboys and Fangirls! This is Sam Lascio, bringing you the latest Marvel news concerning their 2016 film Captain America: Civil War!
Now, just in the name, there was stuff we already assumed. The Civil War storyline in the comics was very basically this: Captain America and Iron Man find themselves on opposing sides after the U.S. government passes a Superhero Registration Act. This Act regulates superhumans and forces them to act as government agents, thus revealing their secret identities, but also allows them to be paid for their skills, so hey, not too bad, right? Iron Man is swayed to the side of the S.R.A. after meeting a grieving mother who lost her son in a hero/villain battle. When Maria Hill tells Cap that he'll have to hunt down anti-Registration heroes and villains alike, however, this doesn't sit well with him, and he goes on the run. This culminates into a final battle between a government-sanctioned Avengers team (led by Iron Man) and a Secret Avengers team (led by Captain America). All I'll say is, people die. It gets extreme.
So based simply on the title, we can assume that the flow of the movie will at least be similar to this. Maybe not identical, but similar.
The official Marvel plot synopsis for Captain America: Civil War is as follows:
Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.
This sounds epic. And pretty damn close to the source material. While the comics dealt with heroes and their secret identities, the film version seems to deal with who the Avengers answer to when things go wrong. After having Stark "birth" Ultron, Hulk destroy an African city, and the devastating final battle in Sokovia in Age of Ultron, as Vanko famously said in Iron Man 2:
If you could make God bleed, people will cease to believe in Him. And there will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit here and watch as the world will consume you.
Now the important question: Who is confirmed for this movie? Well, the lineup is pretty extreme, so let's hammer it out:
- Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
—Obvious.
- Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
—Again, obvious.
- Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
—Was anyone shocked?
- Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier
—We knew it, but it's awesome to have it confirmed.
- Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
—And now with red in his suit!
- Paul Bettany as The Vision
—Yes! This one should have been obvious, but I don't care. Vision rocks.
- Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
—Never thought I'd be excited to see Hawkeye back, but I am!
- Don Cheadle as Jim Rhodes/War Machine
—Jim? Yeah, that's how Marvel announced it. Just sounds wrong.
- Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
—She sold me in Age of Ultron. I want to see how she furthers the character.
- Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
—YES! The movie isn't even out yet, but I'm happy to see him included in this.
- Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
—We knew this already, but I'm still glad to see Black Panther appear.
- Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter/Agent 13
—They only called her "Sharon" in Winter Soldier, so I'm glad to see them owning it, even though everyone already knew this. Cap deserves a lady.
- Daniel Brühl in an undisclosed role.
—Everyone is saying he confirmed he'll be Baron Helmut Zemo (the WWII Baron Zemo's son), but Marvel didn't confirm it. Here's the original source interview though.
- Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones
—Grillo has been teasing the hell out of this on his social media outlets. It's being heavily hinted that he'll even wear a version of the mask from the comics!
- William Hurt as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross
—Cue us fanboys LOSING OUR COLLECTIVE MINDS!!
- Martin Freeman in an undisclosed role.
—We have our own speculation on who he might be playing.
All right, so that was a lot to digest. I'm excited to see Rudd confirmed for Civil War, as well as Bettany's Vision, but I think the biggest piece of news here is that Marvel has officially confirmed that we will see General Ross again. It's almost been like Marvel wants us to forget that The Incredible Hulk was a thing, with some fans even speculating (incorrectly, mind you) that Edward Norton's character is not canon to the MCU. Hopefully those people will now be silenced, and I may simply be dreaming, but wouldn't it be amazing if we see Ross setting up the Thunderbolts as an alternative to the Avengers? I'm getting sweaty just thinking about it.
Mark Ruffalo recently said that the Hulk will not appear in Civil War, so we won't get any scenes with Ross and Banner together, but I expect some references to Betty and the events of the previous film. Maybe something about where Dr. Sterns is or what happened to Blonsky (Abomination) after HYDRA collapsed S.H.I.E.L.D.? Also not mentioned was Thor, but I don't think we expected him to show up because he'll be dealing with the end of Asgard. You know, small stuff.
The main point of Marvel's announcement was that Marvel Studios has begun principal photography for the film in Atlanta, while stating that filming will also take place in Germany, Puerto Rico, and Iceland. But who cares, am I right? Cool locations, but that's definitely not the takeaway from the announcement.
My final thoughts on this news concern the spider-sized hole in the story: No news about Spider-Man. Marvel finished out their announcement (before mentioning Avengers: Age of Ultron's box office numbers) with their entire list of films dating back to Iron Man from 2008. The problem? They mention coming films Ant-Man (July 17, 2015), Captain America: Civil War (May 6, 2016), Doctor Strange (November 4, 2016), Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (May 5, 2017), and Thor: Ragnarok (November 3, 2017), but completely left out Spider-Man (July 28, 2017)! Granted, the film rights are still with Sony Pictures, so it isn't technically a Marvel Studios film, but it will be part of the MCU, and Marvel didn't even mention Spider-Man among the cast. Now, they probably haven't cast him yet, but I would think something would get mentioned. His absence leads me to feel that his role will be a million times smaller than it was in the comics, probably with Black Panther taking over that role, as many rumors have stated.
What do you think of the casting news for Captain America: Civil War? Does this get you more excited for the film? Who do you think Martin Freeman and Daniel Brühl are playing? How large of a role is Spider-Man going to play? Let us know what you think in the comments section! Thanks for reading, everyone! My name is Sam Lascio, and I am a Fanboy!
Definitely a highlight of the day, though, was being able to sit in on Michael Rooker's panel. It was a lighthearted affair filled with tons of jokes. Rooker, of course, was his usual self, prompting the first question of the Q&A session to be: "Are you as big of an asshole as you portray in your movies?"
Definitely a highlight of the day, though, was being able to sit in on Michael Rooker's panel. It was a lighthearted affair filled with tons of jokes. Rooker, of course, was his usual self, prompting the first question of the Q&A session to be: "Are you as big of an asshole as you portray in your movies?"
