Captain America: Civil War

Rating

***Captain America: Civil War*** is an upcoming American superhero film. Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo with a script by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, the film stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie.

## Synopsis

After the events of *Avengers: Age of Ultron*, another international incident involving Captain America and the Avengers results in collateral damage, prompting politicians to form a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to call in the Avengers, which results in the fracturing of the team into two opposing factions–one led by Captain America who wishes to operate without regulation, and one led by Iron Man who supports government oversight–while they attempt to protect the world from a new enemy.

## Development and Production

By January 2014, Anthony and Joe Russo had signed on to return to direct a third *Captain America* film, which they confirmed in March 2014, with Chris Evans returning as Captain America, Kevin Feige producing, and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely returning to write the screenplay. Markus and McFeely revealed that they began working on the screenplay in late 2013, while the Russo brothers began work in February 2014. The re-hiring of the directors, three months before the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, came as a result of impressive test screenings with Marvel executives.

In an April 2014 interview, Joe Russo described the project as a continuation of the story from *Captain America: The Winter Soldier*. "What’s nice about the film is that... it’s a two-parter," said Russo. "There’s a journey that the Winter Soldier goes on that isn’t complete yet. The next movie, it would seem logically to want to be about the completion of that journey." Also in April, Marvel announced a release date of May 6, 2016, and Trent Opaloch, who was the cinematographer on *The Winter Soldier*, said he would return for the sequel. In July 2014, Markus and McFeely stated they were midway through a first draft for the film, and filming was expected to begin in April 2015. The following month, they stated that they were looking to make the tone of the film "an amalgam" of *The First Avenger* and *The Winter Soldier*.

In August 2014, the Russos stated that the film takes place "a couple years" after *The Winter Soldier* left off and would continue to focus on Steve Rogers' relationship with Bucky Barnes while continuing to explore the political themes related to Captain America. "The character was invented for an explicitly political purpose. So it’s hard to get away from that nature," said Anthony Russo. The Russos also said that they would be "bringing some new elements to the table that will give us a twist on *Winter Soldier*." Also in the month, the Russos reiterated that filming is scheduled to begin in April 2015 and indicated that it would take place in Atlanta, while Markus and McFeely had submitted a first draft of the screenplay that they were "ecstatic" with. They also stated that the film's title would be announced "in a month or so at most", and that the concept and title for the film came from Feige, who has had it "for a while", with Joe stating, "We can pitch out characters that we think would be interesting in the story. There’s incredible room to move," and Anthony adding that the film has to wrap itself around Feige's idea. In September 2014, Joe expanded by saying the film would have another "big idea that alters the universe as a whole in some way" similar to S.H.I.E.L.D. falling in *The Winter Soldier*, with the rest of the film, such as the characters, story and tone, left open to the Russos' and writers' interpretation.

By October 2014, Robert Downey Jr. had entered final negotiations to reprise his role as Tony Stark in the film. Downey was added in order to adapt the 2006-07 "Civil War" comic book storyline, which pitted Iron Man against Captain America, for the film. At the end of the month, it was confirmed that Sebastian Stan would return as Bucky Barnes, and a few days later, Marvel revealed that the film would be titled *Captain America: Civil War*, confirmed Downey's appearance, and announced that Chadwick Boseman would appear in the film as Black Panther ahead of his own solo film. Feige also confirmed that the film would be the first in the MCU's Phase Three slate of films.

McFeely said that the idea of basing a film on "Civil War" had "been on and off the table for a while" at Marvel Studios, explaining, "it's a challenge to do it and make sure that all the characters that we've established, and everyone's established in the MCU are serviced and sound correct. Because there's a difference between the characters in "Civil War", which was written in 2006, 2007. The MCU doesn't exist [when it was written]. There isn't a Robert Downey, Jr. or Chris Evans who has helped create the character[s] so we need to make sure that that template gets adjusted and what have you in order to make sure it services these characters and not just sort of rip off their parts and make them look like them." Joe Russo added that the "essence" of the "Civil War" was used, such as "the concept of registration, the notion that heroes need to be either monitored or controlled because their power can be scary" being applicable. Anthony Russo expanded, "in a lot of ways [superhero registration] can be a political issue, and we didn’t want the conflict of the movie to solely exist on that level. We wanted to figure out very personal reasons why everyone’s relationship to this idea of registration is going to become complicated. That’s what the relationship between Steve and Bucky allowed us to do, to get very personal in terms of why people would lean one way or the other.

In November 2014, Daniel Brühl was cast in an unspecified role, while Anthony Mackie and Frank Grillo were confirmed to return as Sam Wilson and Brock Rumlow respectively. Following the November 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures' computers, emails between Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released, stating that Marvel wanted to include Spider-Man (whose film rights are owned by Sony) in the film. However, talks between the studios then broke down. Eventually, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios reached a licensing deal for the use of Spider-Man in an MCU film in February 2015, and reports indicated that the character would indeed appear in *Civil War*.

In January 2015, Mackie revealed that, in addition to Atlanta, filming locations would include Puerto Rico and Berlin, while the Russo brothers confirmed that Scarlett Johansson would return in the film as Natasha Romanoff. At the end of the month, film editor Jeffrey Ford, who worked on *The Winter Soldier*, signed on for *Civil War*. In March 2015, Jeremy Renner was revealed to be reprising his role as Clint Barton. In April 2015, it was revealed that the film would be converted to 3D in post-production, and that Brühl would be playing Baron Helmut Zemo. Additionally, Elizabeth Olsen revealed she would reprise her role in the film as Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch.

Principal photography began on April 27, 2015 in Fayette County, Georgia at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, under the working title *Sputnik*. Other filming locations in the Atlanta metropolitan area included the Buckhead district of Atlanta, the Peachtree Christian Church in Midtown Atlanta, Downtown Atlanta, and Norcross, Georgia. Additional filming was also scheduled to take place in Puerto Rico, and Iceland. *Captain America: Civil War* was the first film to use IMAX's digital 2D cameras, made in partnership with Arri. According to Joe Russo, approximately fifteen minutes of the film, including one sequence "with some incredible scale to it," was shot with the cameras.

In early May, Marvel announced that Martin Freeman was cast in an unspecified role, while Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, and William Hurt were revealed to reprise their roles as Vision, James Rhodes, Scott Lang, Sharon Carter and Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, respectively. After the reveal of the film's full cast, many outlets and fans began referring to the film as "Avengers 2.5 ", given the variety and ensemble nature of the cast, usually reserved for the Avengers films, and the fact that the film no longer felt like a Captain America-centric one, as with *The Winter Soldier*. In response to this, Feige said, "What’s fun about *Civil War* though is, as you know from the comics, it’s a very simple story. And it really has to be, to accommodate that many players. It’s very much a Captain America movie and it’s very much a sequel to *The Winter Soldier* in ways I don’t think people [will expect].... It’s a very simple structure that allows you to have these amazing character interactions in a way that I don’t think becomes overwhelming." On each of the character's ties to the plot, Anthony Russo added that each character was examined on a personal level to see how they would respond to the idea of registration and whether the stakes would be good or bad for them. At the end of the month, the Russo brothers, along with Feige and Pascal, held a screen test in Atlanta for the six teenage actors that were being eyed for the role of Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, with the actors testing against Downey and Evans for "chemistry".

In June 2015, Samuel L. Jackson, who appeared as Nick Fury in the two previous *Captain America* films, said he was "surprised" to discover that he would not be in *Captain America: Civil War*, after "the Russo Brothers told [him he] was." Also in June, Tom Holland was cast as Peter Parker, to appear in his solo film. The Russos "were pretty vocal about who we wanted for the part", pushing to cast an actor close to the age of Peter Parker, in order to differentiate from the previous portrayals. They also praised Holland for having a dancing and gymnastics background. At the time, Marvel did not confirm his involvement in *Civil War*, due to being contractually obligated not to talk about his inclusion publicly. By the end of the month, filming reached the halfway mark. In July 2015, Feige revealed that Hope van Dyne was in an original draft of the film, after receiving the Wasp costume in *Ant-Man*, but was cut because "there are so many characters in *Civil War* that we didn’t want to do her a disservice, like she flies in, ‘I’ve got the costume now’, and she flies out... We haven’t seen her [yet] as Wasp and we don’t want to rob the opportunity of seeing her in the outfit for at least almost the first time, and seeing her dynamic with Scott in a way it could play out, so we’re saving it." At the end of the month, Jonathan M. Goldstein, one of the writers of the solo Spider-Man film, confirmed Holland would appear in the film, later confirmed as well by Entertainment Weekly from a set visit. In early August, production moved to Germany. Filming locations in Germany included the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, and the Leipzig/Halle Airport in Schkeuditz. Principal photography wrapped on August 22, 2015.

In September 2015, Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner in the MCU films, stated that his character was originally in the *Civil Wa*r script, but due to the events at the end of *Age of Ultron*, was removed, as Marvel did not "want to reveal where is he and why" in this film. In November 2015, Joe Russo stated the theme of the film was betrayal, calling it "extremely emotional. [The film] hinges on that emotion, and on a very personal level we didn’t want [it] to become about politics and people arguing about platitudes. The third act is built around a very personal moment between [Captain America and Iron Man]." Visual effects for the film were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).

## Cast

### Principal Roles

#### Superheroes

* Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
* Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
* Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
* Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
* Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
* Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
* Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
* Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
* Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
* Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
* Paul Bettany as Vision
* Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine

#### Villains

* Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo
* Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones
* William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross

#### Other

* Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter/Agent 13

### Minor Roles

* Stan Lee as TBA
* Martin Freeman as TBA
* Jane Wu as UN Staffer Wu
* Heidi Moneymaker as Super Soldier 3
* Surely Alvelo as Nurse
* Gene Farber as Karpov
* Amelia Morck as UN Staffer Gibson
* Ray Sahetapy as Auctioneer
* Austin Handle as British Military
* William Ngo, Ben Hioe and Christoff Veillon as Bidders
* Rafael Banasik as Bargeman #2
* Blair Jasin as Raft guard
* Alexander Yassin as UN Representative
* Erick Wofford as German Tech Agent
* Brent McGee as GSG9 Helicopter Pilot
* Duane Moseley as Tech
* De'Adrian Harmon as Affluent International Traveler
* Gregory Lee Cason as Councilman
* Jason Speer as Swiss Ambassador
* Jonathan Yaskoff as "London"
* Lon Nease as Funeral Mourner
* Rajeev Pahuja as MIT Professor
* Candiss Nicole Gandy as MIT Grad Student

***to be expanded***
## Trailers

*to be added*

Captain America Civil War Official Trailer 1 (2016) - Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson Movie HD
## See Also

* List of Marvel films
* List of superhero films

## References

<references>

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain\_America:\_Civil\_War
2. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3498820/fullcredits?ref\_=tt\_cl\_sm#cast