‘Captain America: Civil War’ Screenwriters Open Up About the Film

If you think the Marvel Cinematic Universe is dominating your life now, just wait until 2016 when Steve Rogers and Tony Stark go head-to-head in ‘Captain America: Civil War.’ It’s a movie so big that it actually scared ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ away from its original release date. So when you read the latest comments on the film by screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (who also wrote the first two ‘Captain America’ films), just try to imagine the amount of pressure on their shoulders. Lesser screenwriters would be crushed.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association (via IGN), Markus and McFeely talked as openly about the upcoming film as they could ... which meant not too much. However, they were able to tease a direct connection between ‘Civil War’ and ABC’s ‘Agent Carter’ series, which shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone who has been paying attention. After all, Hayley Atwell’s tough spy had a brief romance with Cap during World War II and is currently working directly with Tony Stark’s daddy in her own series. With ties to two of Marvel’s chief heroes, she surely must play a role in the new film, right? Says McFeely:

As we have not started shooting, and I’m on my fourth draft of many, that question [of who Peggy was to Tony Stark] has been in and out all over the place so who knows. So many things can shake out but we’ve had conversations and we pitched scenes. Some stay and some don’t. But we saw [Peggy] in ‘Winter Soldier,’ so we know she’s around.

A small easter egg in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ implied that the brainwashed Bucky Barnes was responsible for the death of Howard Stark many years ago. If so, that would certainly give Cap and Iron Man something to fight over and it would place the now-elderly Peggy right in the middle since she’s so deeply connected to everyone involved. That’s some surprisingly complex drama for a superhero movie, especially for viewers aware of the Carter/Stark friendship from ‘Agent Carter.’

However, comic fans will note that all of this has almost nothing to do with the famous (and widely disliked) ‘Civil War’ comic book storyline. McFeely addressed this as well, explaining that the original storyline could never take place in the MCU as it stands at the moment:

It’s been on and off the table for a while, let’s put it that way. And it’s a challenge to do it and make sure that all the characters that we’ve established, and everyone’s established in the MCU are serviced and sound correct, right? Because there’s a difference between the characters in Civil War, which was written in 2006, 2007. The MCU doesn’t exist [when it was written]. There isn’t a Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Evans who has helped create the character so we need to make sure that that template gets adjusted and what have you in order to make sure it services these characters and not just sort of rip off their parts and make them look like them.

He’s being nice about it. ‘Civil War’ is not a good comic, but branding the latest film as such gives Marvel the opportunity to reprint the series as a movie tie-in and make some quick cash. You know, corporate synergy.

And finally, McFeely revealed that he’s the same as the rest of us when it comes to Mr. Chris Evans. A man-crush, revealed:

I might be repeating myself. He’s Gary Cooper for me. Him as Cap is Gary Cooper. He can do a lot with stillness and because Cap is usually right and usually held up to be right, people want to be lead by him. So, that’s one of the things I like about Chris is that he brings ... Remember the parts he played before this. He was uber charming. He was hilarious. He still has that. You still like him. But it’s the fact that he’s holding that back that makes you lean in to him. It’s a different chapter for him and I’m not sure any of us said, ‘That’s the perfect guy because he was the Human Torch!’ Turns out he was the perfect guy because there’s a depth to him.

To read Markus and McFeely not talk about Black Panther and especially not talk about Spider-Man, make sure you read the whole interview. ‘Captain America: Civil War’ is set to open on May 6, 2016; filming is scheduled to begin this April.