Sebastian Stan Talks Captain America: Civil War

Steve Rogers’ best buddy Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who was brainwashed and physically modified into an elite assassin known as The Winter Soldier, will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe next year in Captain America: Civil War. Currently, Stan is promoting a non-Marvel film, Ridley Scott’s The Martian, in which he plays one of the Ares 3 crew members.

That film came in ahead of schedule, due in large part to Scott working 10 hour-days to lessen the amount of time they would need for reshoots. And for that, Scott only required an additional two days, which is quite a bit different from Marvel, a studio known for scheduling as much as two months for reshoots.

“Yes, one hundred percent,” Stan told Uproxx when the Marvel comparison is pointed out. “And it’s great because there’s an element to it where you’re kind of relaxed a little bit and you go, “All right, if we don’t get this, we will figure out what we need later.” And sometimes that’s part of it. But it’s amazing to think of Ridley Scott at 78 years old…”

Marvel is also well known for their secrecy, but even they aren’t fortune tellers. According to Stan, they plan ahead, but they do so with a healthy amount cautious on top of their optimism. “You know, I was in an office with Kevin Feige at one point and I remember they were educating me,” Stan explained. “I didn’t know anything. I didn’t grow up with comic books. I didn’t know anything about it. So, they were educating me about it going, “This is what happens with Bucky, he becomes The Winter Solider.” And I was nodding my head and taking it in going, “Okay, this is cool, but are you talking to me like I have this part of The Winter Soldier? Are you saying I should be excited?” And actually earlier this year when Kevin came to the set of Civil War, I actually asked him, “How does it feel to come to this set and watch these people?” And he said to me straight, “Yeah, we were talking about it, but the truth is we didn’t know we going to be able to do it.” They didn’t really know they were going to be able to get to do Civil War. They didn’t even know they were going to be able to do The Winter Soldier.”

In the after-credits Ant-Man scene, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Cap (Chris Evans) come across Bucky in a dark room and Cap asks Falcon not to tell Tony Stark about who they found. That wasn’t a planned scene for Ant-Man, it was an actual scene from Civil War. A surprise to the audience as well as cast members. “It was, yeah,” Stan said. “They told us about it two or three days before. They are like, “Oh, by the way, there’s going to be this thing.” And at that point, it was great just seeing any footage from the movie that was shot.”

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.

Captain America: Civil War opens in theaters May 6, 2016.