Everything We Know about Captain America: Civil War

Disney showed off a new Captain America: Civil War trailer last weekend at D23, teasing the crowd with a first glimpse of the future of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. In some respects, Captain America: Civil War is even bigger than Avengers: Age of Ultron. Not only does the movie feature most of Marvel’s movie Avengers, it also kicks off “Phase 3” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and sets the table for the next several years of Marvel films.

Since Marvel Studios is currently filming Captain America: Civil War, we’re starting to learn more about the plot and how it impacts the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. There’s a lot of information and rumors flying around about Cap’s blowout sequel, and we’ve done our best to summarize it all in one place.

An Inciting Incident

  

Captain America: Civil War is based loosely on the 2006 Civil War event, which saw Marvel’s superheroes split in two after Congress passed a bill requiring all superheroes to register with the government, in effect forcing superheroes to turn over their secret identity. Since most heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe don’t have secret identities, Captain America: Civil War appears to be more about world governments trying to gain oversight over the Avengers and hold them accountable for an international incident.  While some heroes, led by Tony Stark, agree with government supervision, Captain America leads a group of heroes who want to stay independent from government control.

The comic version of Civil War began when a group of inexperienced heroes confronted a supervillain and caused the deaths of hundreds of innocents, including a number of school children. While some speculated that the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron would push the world’s governments into action, new rumors suggest that a fight between Captain America, Scarlet Witch and Crossbones will be the inciting incident that leads to the Avengers fracturing.

A Not So Merry Marvel Reunion

  

 It might be easier to list which superheroes won’t appear in Captain America: Civil War.  In addition to Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), current Avengers Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and War Machine (Don Cheadle) will appear, as does retired Avenger Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and new hero Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).  Basically, all of Marvel’s heroes will have a role to play, minus Thor and Hulk–but even then, there’s a rumor suggesting that Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) might also pop in unexpectedly.

Also returning for Captain America: Civil War are the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and Agent 13 (Emily Van Camp).  Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) will also cameo in the film, although fans of Cap’s first love might not like how she’ll appear.   

New Heroes Emerge

  

 If the entire Avengers roster wasn’t enough, both Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) will also make their Marvel Cinematic Universe debuts in Captain America: Civil War.  Black Panther will act as a “neutral party” during the movie and it’s rumored that he’ll be searching for the Winter Soldier, possibly blaming him for the death of his father T’Chaka, the ruler of Wakanda. 

Spider-Man’s role in Civil War is a little less clear.  It’s believed the wall-crawler will play a substantial part in the movie, with Spider-Man choosing a side and participating in a climatic final battle involving the rest of the Avengers.  It’s also rumored that Spider-Man will have multiple costumes in the upcoming movie, a “proto-costume” made from scratch and a costume given to him by Tony Stark that resembles his traditional comic book garb. 

Another new face appearing in the movie is British actor Martin Freeman.  The Hobbit and Sherlock star will play a mystery role that some believe is connected to Black Panther and the government forces pushing the superheroes apart.  

The Sides

  

A report earlier this month revealed the sides of Civil War, showing who will stick with Captain America and who will join Iron Man and the U.S. Government.  Flanking Captain America will be Hawkeye, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man and the Winter Soldier.  Meanwhile, Iron Man’s team will have the Vision, Black Widow, Spider-Man and War Machine.  As we mentioned earlier, Black Panther will be a neutral party in the superhero conflict and the Hulk (or at least Bruce Banner) may appear as an ally of Captain America (he was spotted with Chris Evans near the film’s Germany set), breaking the hearts of Science Bros fans everywhere.  The same report also hinted that at least one hero will either defect or be a mole for the other side.  Black Widow, one of Cap’s closer friends and a spy by nature, is the obvious choice as a mole, but Spider-Man could also switch sides, as was the case in the Civil War comics.

Bigger Bad Guys

  

In addition to a fractured group of allies, Captain America will contend with three villains from the Marvel Universe.  Not only is Crossbones (Frank Grillo) returning for Cap 3, Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) and General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) will also act as antagonists for the Marvel heroes.  Zemo appears to be the movies’ big bad, although we don’t know if he’s the one pulling the strings behind the events of Civil War, or if he’s looking to capitalize on the chaos.  General Ross, on the other hand, seems to be the face of the oppressive government forces working against Captain America. 

Bigger Fights

  

If Captain America: Civil War takes any cues from Civil War comic, we’ll see plenty of superhero fights next spring. Not only should we see Iron Man’s team and Captain America’s team come to blows, but we should also expect new displays of power and skills. Both the Falcon and Ant-Man may exhibit new powers, with the Falcon mentally controlling a drone, hearkening to his ability to communicate with birds, and Ant-Man squaring off against Iron Man’s team as Giant-Man. Spider-Man will allegedly have a “dorky” fight scene that may be a highlight (similar to Quicksilver’s iconic sequence in X-Men: Days of Future Past). The wall-crawler will also allegedly fight Captain America in one of the biggest moments of the film. That we have to see.

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What else do you hope to see in the sequel? Let us know in the comments!

Captain America: Civil War opens on May 6, 2016. And to see when Marvel’s following Phase 3 films hit theaters, head to ComicBook.com’s Comic Book Movie Release Schedule!