Captain America: The Raging Nation

***Captain America: The Raging Nation***, alternatively titled ***Captain America: Welcome to the Mad World*** or ***Captain America: Our Country Divided***, was the original pitch for the third *Captain America* movie for the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFreely, with contributions by directors the Russo Bros. It would have adapted *The MadBomb Saga* storyline in the comics. This, along with *Captain America: The Serpent Society*, were discarded in favor of the treatment based on the *Civil War* storyline, which lead to ***Captain America: Civil War*** as the finalized film.

## Plot

Not much is known about the film, other than following *Captain America: The Winter Soldier* and *Avengers: Age of Ultron*, Steve Rogers/Captain America and Sam Wilson/The Falcon, would've taken a leave of absence from the Avengers to continue searching for Bucky Barnes, Steve's childhood best friend and former HYDRA assassin the Winter Soldier after he went on the lam. Eventually, they'd stumble on a conspiracy by a cabal of wealthy devious elites known as the Round Table, who'd developed a cluster of psycho-reactive sonic bombs called Inflammation Payload that would be dropped on every major city of the United States to enact mass psychotic rage in the populace and lead to massive riots and rampages, overturning social order and authority in order to cull and make themselves the absolute authority, utilizing a salvaged Insight Helicarrier recovered from HYDRA's previous attempt at such. Cap, Falcon, and Bucky would also find help in unlikely mysterious allies such as Helmut Zemo and Bill Burnside.

## Cast

* Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America
* Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Steve Rogers
* Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
* Scarlett Johannson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
* Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye
* Samuel L. Jackson as Colonel Nick Fury
* Cobie Smulders as Deputy Maria Hill
* Emily Van Camp as Sergent Sharon Carter
* Bryan Cranston or William Hurt as Secretary Thaddeus Ross
* Chadwick Boseman as Prince T'Challa
* Daniel Bruhl as Baron Helmut Zemo
* Mark Wahlburg as Bill Burnside / Bunkerbuster
* Keira Knightley as Cassia D'Mikhaelsin / Hypnotia
* Cillian Murphy as Seth Voelker / Sidewinder
* Martin Donovan as Councilman Mitchell Carson
* William Salder as President Matthew Ellis
* Martin Freeman as UN Representative Everett Ross
* Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
* Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
* Paul Bettany as The Vision
* Stan Lee as Himself

## Reasons it was cancelled

* While *Civil War* was always considered as a potential plot, it was dependent on Robert Downey Jr.'s cooperation, as if he was to play a starring role again, he demanded a higher paycheck, which then-current Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter was originally unwilling to grant and even considered firing Downey over disagreements, leading to Chris Markus and Stephen McFreely writing two other treatments that would instead put greater focus on hunting down an on-the-run Bucky Barnes between Captain America, Falcon, Black Widow, and Hawkeye and the UN Paramilitary Task Force while potentially eschewing other members of the Avengers, with a superhero registration policy only discussed and proposed instead of being outright enacted by the United Nations panel, with either Baron Zemo, the Serpent Society, or the Round Table/Secret Empire being considered as the film's villains.
* After Kevin Feige smoothed over tensions between Perlmutter and Downey and accommodated the latter's terms, the treatment adapting *Civil War* was greenlit and the other Avengers actors sans Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffulo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, as well as Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, were also signed on to be incorporated in the film.