You got your Captain America in my Iron Man! You got your Iron Man in my Captain America! Relax, you guys, relax. Regardless of who got what where when and why, the fact remains that Variety is reporting that Robert Downey Jr. is very close to joining the cast of Captain America 3, and that this film will lead into the classic comic book event known as Civil War playing out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Considering that Marvel teased Civil War‘s return to comics earlier today, we’d say this is definitely within the realm of possibility.
Note: The following article may contain minor spoilers for Captain America 3, so turn away now if you don’t want to get down like that.
According to Variety, Captain America 3 will see Captain America and Tony Stark feuding over the Superhuman Registration Act, a piece of government legislation that mandates all those with superhuman abilities to reveal their identities to the United States government and work as police force for the powers that be. Stark is a staunch supporter of the program, but Steve Rogers opposes it on that basis that it threatens civil liberties, a similar moral battle we saw him fight in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As you may have guessed from the title Civil War, the causes the two iconic heroes to take opposing sides, sending Rogers and others on the run to avoid arrest. Even though he’s technically fighting on the side of the law, it’ll be interesting to see Stark portrayed as a villain of sorts, or at least an adversary for Captain America, in what will surely kick off a new phase of the MCU.
A beloved crossover event in the Marvel canon, Civil War has long been the subject of fan speculation as to whether or not we’d actually see it on the big screen. Adding fuel to this fire are the recent rumors that Sony was considering relinquishing the rights to Spider-Man or coming up with a means to allow Peter Parker to swing his way back into the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, it seems, it’s going to happen with or without the Wall-Crawler, but can you imagine what a coup it would be if Marvel manages to pull this off?
Another fascinating tidbit about the Downey deal is that it almost didn’t happen. Marvel wanted to have Tony Stark in the movie for a smaller role than the one he has now, one that would have only required about three weeks of work for the veteran Avenger. However, Downey wanted a larger role in order to net him more screen time and, as it goes, more money too, which angered Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, who commanded the screenwriters to excise Iron Man from the script entirely in retribution.
However, all’s well that ends well, and it seems that Kevin Feige was able to work his magic after all as Downey is set to join the cast (and collect “around $40 million plus backend participation”, according to Variety). Suddenly it’s all making sense why Downey has been quashing rumors about Iron Man 4. There is an Iron Man 4…it just so happens to be called Captain America 3. And it’s likely that there’ll be even more in the future as this deal would set up a whole new status quo for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they blaze forward into Phase 3, Phase 4, and beyond.
What else could the future hold for the Avengers franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Well, I asked this very question in last week’s episode of The Dan Cave:
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Captain America 3Â comes to theaters on May 6, 2016.
What do you think? Are you excited to see Robert Downey Jr. in Captain America 3? Do you think Civil War could work without Spider-Man? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: Disney/Marvel
I’m sure Marvel could pull it off without Spiderman. But isn’t it unfair not having him in this film? I mean, I’ve read Civil War comics and I think it would be a great shame not having him around. Anyone else agree? For additional information read article at http://www.exploretalent.com/articles/captain-america-civil-war-revealed/
MOST agree Civil War was a bad story. No matter if you think that or not. Civil War can work on the big screen if Marvel uses ONLY the original premise for the story in the first place.
Editors wanted a big fight between superheroes (big surprise…$$$$).
Generally deviating from canon is what screws superhero films. Yet in this case if Marvel Studios sticks to the concept only – meaning they don’t copy the print plot line (which we all agree would be hard as Spider-Man may not guest appear from Sony)…
If Marvel only takes the idea itself and gives us a better story, the concept itself can work.
But yeah… in print. The Mephisto retcon etc… and the outcome of the Registration Act. Pure stupidity that readers had to suffer. Anyone that actually ‘READ’ Civil War understands the story was told poorly at best.
Oh and outside the Captain America 3 news here…. Marvel is bringing back Civil War in print in 2015. Here we go again.
I couldn’t have said it better, myself.
Comics and movies are different. What works in comics will not always work in a movie, in fact most of the time will not work. Even a 2 1/2 hour movie is still just a vehicle for compressed story telling. The bigger the story the more compression is needed. If you want to follow the source material exactly a TV series or Mini-Series would be your best bet but it would probably be boring, too long between interesting bits, and the action would be scaled down considerably. Good luck. If you take the mindset that these stories happen in the same universe with the same people but do not have to agree with anything else you will enjoy them more, just like when Marvel allows an writer and artist to rejuvenate or re-boot a comic.
Beloved event? Does this guy read comics?
…Except, there are no secret identities in the MCU. No one has their name protected in the movies, and it’s been like that since the first Iron Man movie. All of this speculation, leaping to the conclusion of Civil War based off of RDJ being in Cap 3? This is ridiculous, and a big reason why I can’t trust websites to have the facts straight. Rumors and broad assumptions, that’s all this is.
That’s why they want spider-man. He’s a well known Marvel character who has always hid his secret identity. Using him in Civil War would allow us to see a familiar face going through the struggle of “what should I do, rebel or accept this new registration law?”
They don’t need to make a movie for every character before they do the marvel civil war series.. They need to make the Damn movie, decide who they want to play who for a couple years and then they can do separatecharacter movies…. Let’s get this movie done guys.. I’ve been waiting my while life for this
Um…does the Marvel Movie Universe have enough super humans to make up a “Civil War?” No mutants, no FF, Spidey’s a long shot…if you stretch out to include some Agents of SHIELD bad guys and the upcoming Netflix bunch, we’re talking maybe 25 people here. Isn’t that less of a “Civil War” and more of a “bar fight?”
Don’t forget ManThing (name checked in AoS) and Howard the Duck…. 😉
But yeah, seriously – exactly my thoughts. Not enough characters. + needs at least another character for inciting incident (Stamford.)Initially thought it would be a small part for Stark, 10 minutes in which he walks on and advises Cap on some tech (AIM?) or mends Bucky’s bionic arm or sorts out the “Brainwashing machine” (after the movie wraps up the Winter Soldier arc) but even the Armor Wars arc (Yeah, I know that was an Iron Man story, not a Cap one) would give a plot hook for meet and beat story.
any other character would work better, there’s no point in doing this. It’s like making a Gamora spin-off movie heavily featuring Peter Quill, we already get enough of Iron Man, I don’t dislike him but for the love of god they’re just doing this for money and ignoring how this will not do the plot any good at all
Honestly, it is the worst idea ever. There is NO way this works.
I thought the same thing when I first saw a picture of Rocket Raccoon.
hi
Wasn’t the whole point of the Civil War run to kill off Steve Rogers? Is this how they get Chris Evens out of the Stars $ Stripes outfit and Sebastian Stan (who has like 6 installments left on his multi-film contract) in?
I think that happens in Avengers 2 or 3, a much more emotional end to the star spangled hero in the mash up movie to end the phase
Maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t it be more interesting if they flipped roles from what we saw in the comics?
Considering that Captain America 2 ended with Cap not wanting secrets anymore, he would be more pro registration than Iron Man, who may be more for privacy considering he knows the consequences of divulging to much info in Iron Man 3.
There is much more to happen before we get to Cap 3, so the possibilities are endless.
Also, will they keep Nitro as the cause to all of this? If so Wolverine would be needed. As others have mentioned, Spider-Man would be nice as well.
Civil War without Spider-Man. Obviously they can pull it off. It’s Marvel. 🙂 My main question would be who would replace Spider-Man in this version of Civil War. In the comics, he was what linked the reader between BOTH points of view. The closest thing they would have right at this second would be Rhodey. He would want to stick by Tony, but is also not afraid to go against his friend if needed.
Rhodey doesn’t have the same appeal in that role as someone like Spidey though. Pretty certain his identity as Iron Patriot is mostly public knowledge as a military hero already while Spider-Man was a complete unknown entity except to a few certain people.
Excellent point. The identity reveal was a crucial part of Spider-Man’s path in that story. Rhodey being a public figure would NOT have the same impact. I agree with you 100%. (Proving that proper discourse on the internet CAN be achieved) They may just take the name Civil War as well, and take the story in a whole different direction. As long as Guns n’ Roses doesn’t do the soundtrack, I am okay. (most current band I could think of with a song called Civil War.)
I’d just like to congratulate the two of you for having the most sane and rational conversation in a comments section on MCU movies ever.
There’s a duo called The Civil Wars… but they just split up.
In the MCU, most all the characters have publicly known identities: Iron Man revealed his in a press conference, Captain America’s identity was publicized during WWII, Iron Patriot was called by name in a presidential speech, Black Widow testified on Capital Hill and Thor doesn’t have an alter-ego to reveal. Bruce Banner could fill that role since he’s hiding from those that would want to exploit The Hulk, but Spider-Man’s reason for remaining anonymous was to protect those he was closest to. Who knows if Marvel will reveal a character in the course of the next two films that fits that role, but Dtrain is right. None of the characters introduced thus far have anything close to an Aunt May that would need to be protected.
They could make Rhodey and Falcon make up both sides of Spider-Man. Both caught in the middle with loyalties to each other and both sides.
Maybe DareDevil? from their new Netflix show? Plausible — possibly.
They are introducing a few people between then and now… Carol, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man… maybe have one of them with the issue of the secret identity. Not sure it’ll work quite as well, but Paul Rudd may be likable enough to have the audience on his side.
I think Widow would fit well in that role. She shares Stark’s pragmatism, but is inspired by Steve’s idealism.
Rodney is very close to Stark, and is a goverment’s agent, also, is not a very popular character, and has no relevance among the other Marvel Characters. Widow is also closest to Captain america, and has no good relationships with goverment nor Stark, i think that she playing in both sides it’s not a good idea. Also, there’s no time to introduce spiderman into the Civil War movie, because a key issue was the relationship between Peter and Tony, and the great admiration and respect that spidey feels for Captain, also Peter is a very beloved character for all the superheroic community. There’s no other character with these particularities in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, i believe that Civil war will not have a pivotal character betweent both sides.