Now that the Avengers: Age of Ultron DVD and Blu-ray release is about to hit, Marvel is wasting no time in kicking its Disney-funded marketing mechanism into high gear. The Captain America Twitter account has already thrown a few bits of post-Avengers material into the mix, but with Captain America: Civil War set to hit theaters in May, some of the stars of Marvel’s next are finally providing reporters with more than just muffled publicity-speak. Elizabeth Olsen and Sebastian Stan already have, and now Chris Evans has joined in on the fray.
On Saturday, the Salt Lake Comic Con devoted an entire panel to Captain America himself, and 4,500 people showed up to cheer on one of Marvel’s most recognized-performers. Co-stars Anthony Mackie and Hayley Atwell surprised Evans on stage, sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, however, it was what the man of the hour said about Civil War that caught everyone’s attention.
“Tony actually thinks we should be signing these accords and reporting to somebody and Cap, who’s always been a company man and has always been a soldier, actually doesn’t trust anymore. Given what happened in [Captain America: The Winter Soldier], I think he kind of feels the safest hands are his own,” said Evans.
His comments mirror confirmed (and unconfirmed) rumblings previously made by Kevin Feige et al., which significantly distance the third Captain America film from its comic book namesake. That is, as Uproxx’s Dan Seitz writes, instead of a narrative about super heroes registering their secret identities with a government agency, the film is “instead about whether or not, say, heroes can cross borders to meddle in a dictator filling a prison full of political dissidents with nerve gas.”
The Civil War comics crossover event, which ran through 2006 and 2007, is not remembered well among Marvel readers. The larger concepts that drive the narrative still resonate, especially within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the comic books’ execution of these ideas does not. Hence why the film will make use of the title and the basic idea, but create its own story — especially one that works with the movies that have preceded it.
At least Evans and his co-stars before him seem excited about what the film does with the story. After all, it follows on the heels of Winter Soldier, one of Phase Two’s best entries.
“These are understandable concerns, but this is tough because, even reading the script, you think I think I agree with Tony in a way, and I do agree that to make this work, you do need to surrender to the group,” he explained to the crowd. “It’s hopefully what will make the movie great is nobody’s right, nobody’s wrong.”
Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6, 2016.
(Via Salt Lake Tribune)