Captain America: Civil War Working Title Is Sputnik

Marvel Studios has given a name to it’s working title for Captain America: Civil War, and it comes loaded with potential for speculation.

“Sputnik” will be the Captain America threequel’s alias as it moves through development, Comic Book Movie discovered. Marvel’s previous working titles have always been veiled references to an overall concept, with “Group Hug” for The Avengers and “Freezer Burn” for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

So what can we glean from this title, which is also the name of the Soviet’s first space mission? For starters, there’s the obvious Winter Soldier connection. As many recall, Bucky Barnes was reprogrammed into The Winter Soldier by the Soviet Union after WWII. Indeed, Marvel already confirmed that actor Sebastain Stan would return as The Winter Soldier in Civil War.

But, Winter Soldier may play a larger role in Civil War’s plot than we previously suspected. During Marvel’s “Death of Captain America” storyline, the word “Sputnik” was used by Captain America’s killers as a verbal “shutdown code” on The Winter Soldier, which The Soviets planted during their brain-washing. It’s worth noting that these events happened right after the Civil War miniseries. It’s all speculation at this point, but Sputnik may suggest that Captain America: Civil War will also draw inspiration from “The Death of Captain America” storyline. Co-Directors Joe and Anthony Russo drew from Captain America writer Ed Brubaker’s well of stories in Winter Soldier, so it seems likely that they would continue that narrative thread

Captain America: Civil War will begin production in spring 2015 for a May 6, 2016 release.