This sure is sounding like a movie to me.
Principal photography for Captain America: Civil War is underway. So to keep us satisfied until the impending Spider-Man updates, Marvel has given us some updates on Steve Rogers’ third solo-outing, which is shaping up to be less of a solo-outing and more of an Avengers 2.5.
There wasn’t a whole lot of big news in Marvel’s press release other than the fact that Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man – whose solo film comes later this summer – will make his first appearance alongside other Avengers in Civil War. Oh, and that William Hurt’s Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, who’s only MCU appearance thus far as been in The Incredible Hulk, will be reprising his role – giving us the only direct connection to that film since it was released in 2008.
But they did release an official synopsis for the film, which is pretty much what it was expected to be:
“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.
I’m down. I mean, I was down when we learned that the films title was Civil War, but just the fact that this story is being put on film – and hopefully reinvigorated/done better – is exciting. It’ll also be interesting to see the Captain America films continue on their political journey, culminating in some heated superhero debates – I hope there’s a court scene! If the events of both Avengers films have shown us anything, it’s that there is some severe disparity in ideals among this team and it’s finally time to address it. I also really like the idea of Tony taking on a more villainous role.
But just to give you an idea of just how big this movie is going to be, take a look at this cast (minus Spider-Man, who we assume will be announced later):
Chris Evans Steve Rogers/Captain America
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
Paul Bettany as The Vision
Jeremy Renner Clint Barton/Hawkeye
Don Cheadle as Jim Rhodes/War Machine
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch.
Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther
Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter/Agent 13
Daniel Brühl [as Baron Zemo?]
Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones
William Hurt as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross
Martin Freeman [as Spider-Gwen, we hope]
That’s madness. Joss Whedon had a hard enough time juggling this many characters in Age Of Ultron, so this seems totally gonzo for a Captain America movie. But the Russo brothers do come from Community – one of my all-time favorite TV shows – and that show is very much an ensemble show where everyone gets a distinct voice and arc, so if anyone is going to be handling a Marvel cast this big other than Joss, I’m glad it’s them.
Captain America: Civil War opens on May 6th 2016