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Marvel Prepares For War: New 'Civil War' and 'Infinity War' Details
This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Proceed at your own risk.
The Age of Ultron arrived just one week ago with record-setting box office both domestically and abroad, but Marvel Studios isn’t letting up, revealing early details on the Phase 3 kick-off, Captain America: Civil War, and the Phase 3 finale, the epic, two-part Avengers: Infinity War.
The third Captain America installment is starting to look like an Avengers film in its own right, with Marvel releasing the official cast list and synopsis earlier today.
What do we know? From the plot listing, maybe not all that much:
“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.
We know coming out of Age of Ultron, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye, and based off of the comic book story where Civil War gains its title, we’re going to see the split built around these two iconic heroes.
That said - there are a lot of heroes scheduled for this film. We have Cap’s team of New Avengers: Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson), Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Also scheduled for the film? Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Sebastian Stan returning as Bucky (also known as the Winter Soldier), the debuting Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman), and as we learned earlier this week, Emilly VanCamp returning as Sharon Carter (last seen in The Winter Soldier), and Martin Freeman in an unnamed role.
Villain wise, Frank Grillo returns as Brock Rumlow (I think we’ll see him as Crossbones here), and Daniel BrÁ¼hl has been all but confirmed as playing legendary Marvel villain Baron Zemo (I believe he’s the “new and nefarious" villain listed in the official logline.)
What’s really cool? This press release also confirms two unexpected additions to the cast - Paul Rudd as Ant-Man (who makes his debut later this Summer), and William Hurt returning as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt" Ross, which may make for the first time the MCU has openly referenced The Incredible Hulk since the film’s release in 2008.
It’s a lot of things to balance, and honestly - I’m thinking this is going to be more Civil War in name, than Civil War in action. I don’t think Cap is going to die, but I do think we’re going to see a schism between our heroes…a schism that puts Tony and Steve face to face, and allows the movie to focus on their conflicts, with everyone else popping up in essentially cameo roles.
I could be wrong, of course, but I feel like that Marvel has to be calling this Captain America: Civil War instead of Avengers: Civil War for a reason, besides making for a Captain America Trilogy. That said, we’re going to be seeing a lot of characters pulled off the table for about two years, as Marvel looks into new heroes like Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and someone named Spider-Man to fill the Avengers void between Civil War and Infinity War.
Speaking of Infinity War, things are moving forward with the next Avengers installment, going the Harry Potter/Hunger Games route of wrapping up the series in a massive two-part installment. We already knew that the Russo Brothers, who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier and are directing Captain America: Civil War would be in the director’s chair(s) for both Infinity War installments, which will be filming back to back, Lord of the Rings style, but today brought two other bits of news.
First and foremost, writers Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely - who have written all three Captain America films - will be writing the script for both parts of Infinity War. Additionally, to help emphasize the massive scale of Infinity War, both films will be the first shot completely using a new IMAX Digital Camera. We’ve seen many blockbuster films shoot sequences with the traditional IMAX film cameras - with Christopher Nolan pushing the boundaries of what can be done with them in movies like The Dark Knight and Interstellar, but Infinity War will be shot front-to-back using this new IMAX/Arri Digital Camera. We’ll first see the skill of these cameras in Captain America: Civil War, as “select action sequences" will be shot for that film using this new technology.
It’s a huge, epic time for Marvel Studios, and they’re going all out to stick the landing. Say what you will about Age of Ultron - I had a great time with it myself - but you have to admire what Marvel Studios is doing here. They promised that they’d deliver a proper comic book experience in movie theaters, and they’ve succeeded - massive crossovers and all.
Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6, 2016, with Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 hitting on May 4, 2018, and Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 bringing it all together on May 3, 2019.
Thursday May 7, 2015