On the film’s tenth anniversary, Hasitha Fernando looks at the story behind Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Civil War…
The character arc of Steve Rogers which began with the retro-vibed actioner Captain America: The First Avenger concluded with the epic Avengers 2.5-esque Captain America: Civil War. During this journey Steve Rogers transformed from an obedient solider who placed utmost trust on the government to a disillusioned agent hell-bent on destroying HYDRA and becoming a hero whose actions are dictated by his own conscience. As Captain America: Civil War celebrates its 10th anniversary we look back at its behind-the-scenes story of the Marvel Studios blockbuster…
The Russo Brothers got the gig based on positive test screenings of The Winter Soldier
Prior to helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the work of director duo Anthony and Joe Russo was primarily confined to the small screen, with popular comedy series like Arrested Development, Community and Happy Endings. One of the reasons Kevin Feige chose the Russos to direct the Captain America sequel was because he was impressed by the Community episode “Modern Warfare” (Season 01, Episode 23), which involved a hilariously competitive paintball competition, chockfull of modern pop-culture references. Three months prior to the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Russo brothers were re-hired to helm the then untitled third Captain America flick because Feige and Marvel execs were very impressed with the test screenings of that film. In March 2014, Anthony and Joe Russo confirmed that they had indeed signed on to helm the third Captain America movie, with Chris Evans reprising the lead role and Feige producing.
The original story for the film was much different to the final output
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely started their careers with the Emmy Award winning mini-series The Life and Death of Peter Sellers before transitioning to feature film with 2005’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The success of The Chronicles of Narnia series undoubtedly played an integral role in convincing Marvel Studios to hire the duo to pen Captain America: The First Avenger. Critic and fan responses to the Cap’s first film were positive and that gave enough reason for Feige & co. to rehire Markus and McFeely to write its sequel. While Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a departure from the original, both tonally and narratively, the conspiracy action thriller resonated immensely with audiences. This invariably led to them being rehired for the third Cap flick which they began working on from late 2013. The original story envisioned by the writers was a small-scale film that didn’t feature any of the other Avengers, but Feige decided to adapt Mark Millar’s Civil War, which saw Captain America and Iron Man at loggerheads with each other due to difference in opinion. Certain aspects of the writer duo’s original idea such as the emphasis placed on Cap and Bucky’s relationship and Baron Zemo being the primary antagonist, however, did make its way into the shooting script.
The Godfather, Fargo & Se7en served as major influences for the movie
Captain America: Civil War wasn’t an outright adaptation of Mark Millar’s acclaimed comic but incorporated elements of its story to suit the requirement of the MCU’s broader narrative as well as broadening Steve Rogers and Tony Stark’s respective character arcs. Whilst the catalyst for Cap and Iron Man’s conflict in Millar’s comics was the Superhero Registration Act, in the movie the impetus was an incident from Stark’s past leveraged to devastating effect by the manipulative Baron Zemo. During an interview in April 2014, Joe Russo described the MCU film as a continuation of Steve Rogers’ story from with Captain America: The Winter Soldier: “What’s nice about the film is that it’s a two-parter. There’s a journey that the Winter Soldier goes on that isn’t complete yet.” The Russos revealed that they wanted to tone of the movie to be an amalgamation of The Winter Soldier and The First Avenger with efforts like The Godfather, Se7en, Fargo and Brian De Palma’s films serving as influences.
Chris Evans worked out between takes to achieve a godlike physique
Starting his career in television series such as Opposite Sex, Chris Evans transitioned to film in the 2000s with teen flicks like Not Another Teen Movie and The Perfect Score. Prior to landing the Captain America role that would gain him international recognition, Evans had previously portrayed eight different comic book characters in multiple movies which include The Fantastic Four, The Losers and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Following his casting in the iconic role of the First Avenger, Evans has gone on to reprise the character on numerous movies belonging to the MCU making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. One of the most powerful shots in Captain America: Civil War, saw Steve Rogers trying to stop the chopper commandeered by Bucky from taking off, using his bare hands. To be in peak shape Evans took a page from Anthony Mackie’s book and started curling weights hours before shooting began, in order to achieve those glorious bulging biceps. Evans’ extra effort certainly paid off but it also left the poor chap with an injured arm, “That shot is a little bit of bicep porn. ‘Zoom in on the biceps’, that’s what the script said. Kevin Feige didn’t airbrush my biceps, that’s me. It’s not a utilitarian shot; it’s a shot where you’re trying to look heroic. That position (of holding the helicopter with one hand and the ledge with another) is actually a very unnatural position to use to stop something, but we used it because I have to flex my bicep, you are trying to make the scene look great, and I genuinely messed my arm up doing that shot because of the strain.”
The Webslinger’s long-awaited debut in the MCU nearly didn’t happen
That’s right. The much anticipated debut of Spider-Man in the MCU almost didn’t happen because Sony Pictures – who owned the movie rights to the lucrative IP – rejected Marvel’s original proposal during the first few rounds of negotiations. Sony decided to renegotiate with Disney when Andrew Garfield parted ways with the studio, thus scuttling the original plan to complete the actor’s Spider-Man trilogy and the Sinister Six spin-off flick. Marvel and Sony embarked on an extensive seven-month casting process, reviewing over 7500 audition tapes to narrow their options down to a potential shortlist to find their Peter Parker/Spider-Man. This shortlist included Tom Holland, Asa Butterfield, Charlie Rowe, Charlie Plummer, Mathew Lintz and Judah Lewis. This group of actors underwent additional auditions screen-testing opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans to assess screen chemistry and to also evaluate their respective physical prowess for the physically demanding role. Tom Holland’s background in gymnastics and dancing (having previously starred in the West End’s Billy Elliot the Musical) was a major decisive factor that gave him an edge over other contenders. In the end, Holland was cast as the MCU’s webslinger and became the youngest actor portray the character, being only nineteen-years-old at the time.
Black Panther’s role was considerably smaller in earlier drafts of the movie
Crafting a good screenplay is a time consuming creative process where multiple drafts are produced prior to a finalized shooting script. The same was true of Captain America: Civil War. In earlier drafts of the film, T’Challa had a considerably smaller role and did not even appear in his Black Panther costume. Marvel wanted to put a greater focus on Spider-Man, saving the best of Black Panther for his own movie, later on. This stance changed when Marvel was struggling to strike a deal with Sony to use the webslinger prominently in their story and thus, T’Challa’s role was expanded to make him an integral part of Captain America: Civil War. By the time Sony agreed to Spidey being used in the story, the writers had no choice but to keep T’Challa’s role as it is and make Spider-Man a smaller yet memorable part of the movie. Chadwick Boseman underwent a rigorous training regime to get in superhero-esque shape for the character. The late actor reused the Xhosa accent which he learned for the 2016 revenge flick Message from the King for T’Challa’s character and used it during the entirety of production whether he was on or off camera. Such was Boseman’s insane commitment to the role he was playing, which was incidentally, the first black superhero to be featured in American comics, way back in in July 1966.
Sebastian Stan’s native country was factored in the movie’s story
Sebastian Stan who plays the amnesia ridden Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier is first seen in the movie, hiding out in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. The actor who is from a mixed-heritage was born in Constanta, Romania and lived in the country until he was eight years old. In Captain America: Civil War, Stan is first seen buying some fruits from a street vendor and the language he used to converse in none other than his native language of Romanian. Although the scenes set in Bucharest were actually shot in Berlin, Germany the inclusion of that particular detail in the story was certainly an interesting one. Stan being the committed actor he is, packed on 35 pounds of additional muscle to play his character, effectively increasing his body weight from 165 to a whopping 200 pounds.
Daniel Brühl was cast as Baron Zemo due to his German accent
Daniel Brühl started his career starring in films in his native country of Germany where he drew much acclaim and went on to win three German Film Awards. However, it was with his critically lauded performance in 2003’s Goodbye, Lenin! that Brühl received wider recognition by winning the Best Actor at the European Film Awards. The talented actor then made a seamless transition to Hollywood by starring as Nazi war hero Fredrick Zoller in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. Brühl further cemented his reputation as a lead actor with the biographical sports drama Rush, where he played Formula 1 racing driver Niki Lauda. Brühl’s German accent was a contributory factor for his casting as Baron Zemo in Captain America: Civil War but the guy never took offence about it. Brühl reprised the villainous role for the Disney + series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a few years later.
Marvel Entertainment CEO wanted Tony Stark written out of the story
Before anyone panics it’s not Kevin Feige. This was controversial Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, a figure who was well-known for his cost-cutting approach. When producers initially wanted to hire Robert Downey Jr. to reprise Tony Stark, they’d envisioned a smaller role for the actor. But Downey wanted an expanded role which would invariably lead to a bigger payday for him. Perlmutter was against this notion and ordered the screenwriters to write off Tony Stark’s character out of the script completely. Fortunately, Feige was able to convince the powers-that-be otherwise and got Downey Jr. on board. This was certainly a win for the actor since he received a substantial paycheck that included a back-end participation deal and another payout if Captain America: Civil War’s box-office earnings exceeded its predecessor, which it certainly surpassed.
Box-office success, rave reviews, and the franchise beyond
The production budget of Captain America: Civil War was an astounding $250 million but the high-octane actioner ended up raking in a whopping $1.153 billion at the worldwide box-office, effectively making it the highest-grossing film of the year 2016. The movie still remains in the top ten of the highest-grossing superhero films of all time, which is all the more impressive since a decade has elapsed since its release. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the effort boasts an approval rating of 90% with an average rating of 7.7/10 from 431 reviews. The critical consensus of the site is summarized thus: “Captain America: Civil War begins the next wave of Marvel movies with an action-packed superhero blockbuster boasting a decidedly non-cartoonish plot and the courage to explore thought-provoking themes.” Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times penned a gushing review of the film writing, “Kudos to co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo and the team of writers for juggling more than a dozen comic-book characters and nearly that many plot lines, and only occasionally getting us (and by us I mean me) lost in the geek weeds.”
The movie effectively brought to a close the character arc of Steve Rogers/Captain America, that was kick-started with Captain America: The First Avenger. Apart from the planned trilogy of films the character was, of course, set to appear in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But after Steve Rogers handed over the Captain America mantle to Anthony Mackie’s Falcon at the end of Avengers: Endgame, if and when Evans’ Steve Rogers would reappear next in the MCU was certainly in doubt until it was confirmed by the studio this past December with the first Avengers: Doomsday teaser that Evans will indeed reprise his fan-favorite character for another clash against Robert Downey Jr., this time with the latter portraying Doctor Doom as opposed to Tony Stark.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
