States of emergency
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR | Ten things you need to know about the all-star enmity...
The Avengers won’t be re-assembling until 2018 but, in the meantime, the next outing for out-of-time army man Steve Rogers promises to be a stop-gap dust-up with plenty of familiar faces aboard. Here’s the skinny on Cap’s
upcoming super-skirmish...
CAPE FEAR
The plot is quite the puzzler: how do you hope to control people who occasionally level metropolises? In the wake of some as-yet-unknown super-catastrophe, world governments makes moves to hold heroes to account. The unfortunate consequence is an outbreak of cape-on-cape violence, as Cap and liberty-loving cohorts face off against Iron Man plus entourage. Except, of course, that’s not the half of it…
sUPERMEN RETURN
Returning alongside Chris Evans’ Cap and Robert Downey Jr’s wayward Tony Stark is the entire new Avengers line-up, including Don Cheadle as War Machine and Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch. Esrtwhile Hobbit Martin Freeman has been cast in an unspecified role and there are even rumblings that the new Spider-Man might appear, which would make sense given that he’s key to the comics' storyline.
BAD-GUY BONANZA
It wouldn’t be Marvel if there wasn’t a glut of super-powered bad boys waiting in the wings to complicate matters, and Civil War is no different. William Hurt is back as the Hulk-hating General Ross, Frank Grillo from Winter Soldier returns as hired-gun Crossbones, and newcomer Daniel Brühl is tipped to be stone-cold loon Baron Zemo.
BUCKY’S BACK
On top of all that villainy, Civil War will also see the return of Cap’s former war buddy and the Winter Soldier himself, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Currently off the grid, he's dealing with his damaged psyche while wondering what the hell happened.
“It’s a really fascinating character to play with,” says co-director Joe Russo. “Is he the worst assassin we’ve ever seen, or the longest-suffering POW?”
BROTHER BEYOND
Speaking of Joe, he’ll be returning to Captain America with bro Anthony Russo, as will screenwriting duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely; expect something echoing the political espionage of Winter Soldier, with a pinch of Avengers panache. “You can imagine that with us back, with the Russos back, then if you like Winter Soldier you’ll hopefully like the third one – if we do it right!” enthuses McFeely.
PLAYING POLITICS
Winter Soldier looks set to be the key text for the first part of Civil War, with Bucky Barnes and his complex, decades-spanning relationship with Cap establishing the film’s themes. “The character was invented for an explicitly political purpose,” says Anthony, “so it’s hard to get away from that nature.” Things are unlikely to get too heavy, though – Marvel-style politics is more pugilism than punchy debating. ANTI-MATTER Paul Rudd hasn’t yet made his debut as size-shifting Ant-Man but Marvel is clearly confident in his appeal, confirming he’ll be cropping up in Civil War. As any comics fan will tell you, Ant-Man was part of the original Avengers line-up so don’t be surprised if he’s added to the ensemble by the time the dust's settled on Cap & Co.
THE BLACK PANTHER COMETH
It looks likely we’ll be taking a trip to Wakanda, the fictional African nation that's home to the Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman is all set to play T'Challa, ruler of Wakanda, who likes to slip into lycra to become the Black Panther whenever he's not, y'know, ruling. And don’t forget – he has his own movie coming in 2017, too...
IT’S MILLAR TIME
Sort of... Cap’s next outing is based on Marvel’s Civil War arc, written by Mr Kick-Ass, Mark Millar. But even if you’ve read the comics, you won't know it all. Marvel Studios' president, Kevin Feige, says “This is the Civil War of the cinematic universe. [ It] will be inspired by the comic, but we have a very different continuity going on.”
CAPTAIN CRUNCH
Civil War sounds like a superhero hoedown, so what does that mean for the man with his name in the title? Word is this will still be very much a Cap film, with Chris Evans right at its heart. “He’s Gary Cooper, for me,” says McFeely. “Because Cap is usually right and usually held up to be right, people want to be lead by him.” RP
ETA | 29 april 2016 Captain America: Civil War opens next year.