‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Directors Say Captain America Is Embracing The Spirit Of Nomad

In Avengers: Infinity War, fans will meet a somewhat different Captain Americathan the one they’re used to, but those origins can still be traced to the comics.

Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo sat down with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where the director’s discussed how Infinity War will embrace the character’s Nomad days from the comics. He won’t be wearing the costume mind you, but the spirit of the character is definitely there.

“Yeah, he’s in, I think we had mentioned this previously, it’s no surprise and I think you see it in the trailer is that he is embracing the spirit of Nomad,” Joe Russo said. “It was always our intent from the moment we got involved with that character to deconstruct him. That’s what we like, that’s what we find interesting. It’s what Soderbergh responded to in our initial work.”

Infinity War picks up right where Civil War ended in regards to Cap, and his internal conflict is what was most interesting for the Russo brothers.

“You look at Arrested Development or Community, we are constantly either deconstructing genre or tone or playing with, we like to say it’s like being a Mad Scientist, you get to play in the laboratory and experiment with narrative,” Russo said. “With a character called Captain America, you have to address the concept of who he is because his identity is tied to his country. So we thought it would be a really compelling narrative if he got into conflict with his identity, with the country, so the notion, the path that he’s following is the same path that we left him in at the end of Civil War, which is he’s a character without a country.”

For those unfamiliar with the Nomad persona, it originated in Captain America #180. In that storyline, Cap became disillusioned with the government, and so he ditched his familiar costume and identity and became Nomad.

In the MCU it has played out a bit differently, though the same themes are in place. Cap has found himself at odds with the government on the account of the Sokovia Accords, which wanted all heroes to register with the government. That didn’t sit right with Cap, but there was also a divide internally between the Avengers, specifically Cap and Tony Stark.

Fans can see how things play out when Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4.