Robert Downey Jr. And Chris Evans Explain Why Iron Man And Captain America Fight

While many know that Captain America and Iron Man will clash over a superhuman registration act in Captain America: Civil War, the actors behind the icons—Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans—have hinted that their battle will stem from much deeper issues.

While speaking to reporters during an Avengers: Age of Ultron press event, Evans and Downey Jr. explained that Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are fundamentally different people. With contrasting viewpoints and ideologies, Cap and Iron Man won’t need much convincing to fight each other. And given Steve’s relationship to Howard Stark that Tony never had, there may be some jealousy fueling the punches as well.

“[Tony] Stark grew up under the shadow of this very close father son/relationship that Howard [Stark] had with Steve [Rogers, Captain America] so I’m sure that it’s driven by some unconscious motives,” Downey Jr. said. “At the same time, they’re two vastly different generations of moral psychology. And arguably, Cap’s is more righteous. But I think Tony is a realist. So that’s always a fun dynamic to play.”

If that weren’t enough, the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron will find Captain America and Iron Man waffling on their former ideologies. With their ideals inverted, each character will find themselves in new—and opposing-moral territory when Civil War arrives.

“This is why I think the next movie is going to be so effective – Civil War – because there’s a flip-flop in the way we approach things,” the actor said of Cap and Iron Man. “Tony’s always been a trailblazer,” Chris Evans told IGN. “He’s always been his own man and he bucks authority. He dances to the beat of his own drum. Cap comes from a world or order, and organization, and hierarchy, and structure. And I think after Cap 2 when SHIELD kind of fell that Cap kind of realized that you can’t necessarily trust the people around you – or you can’t trust the system. I think he now is kind of starting to follow his own heart, and do his own thing, and as a result there becomes this kind of flip-flop in perspective.”

Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6, 2016.

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