Disney announced the cast for what could be the most comic book character-loaded Marvel movie yet. Captain America: Civil War will have (as it stands now) up to 16 comic book characters in its cast. It’s almost the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe — well, besides Thor and Hulk.
In a press release, Marvel and Disney announced that principal photography has begun for Captain America’s third standalone movie. It’s got almost everybody, but first, here’s the official synopsis:
“Captain America: Civil War” picks up where “Avengers: Age of Ultron” left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.
The film will shoot in Atlanta, Georgia, Germany, Puerto Rico and Iceland (so there might be some plot clues in there, for you comics sleuths).
But now onto the massive cast. Here’s who’s returning, plus the new players, along with their rumored roles:
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
Paul Bettany as The Vision
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
Don Cheadle as Jim Rhodes/War Machine
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther
Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter/Agent 13
Daniel Brühl who recently revealed he’ll be playing Baron Helmut Zemo (but Marvel does not confirm this in the press release)
Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones
William Hurt as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross
Martin Freeman who is rumored to be playing Everett K. Ross
Good god, that’s a lot of people, and you know that’s not going to be the limit. Spider-Man has to show up at some point, too. Plus, there are newly created characters the movie will most likely stumble upon or reference, and many others that haven’t been announced yet.
It’s no big surprise that this movie is stuffed to the gills with comic stars. The premise of this movie will directly impact the lives of all supers, everywhere. But could this be the tipping point for comic book movie overload? Is Marvel actually putting out Avengers 3 just one year after Avengers 2? Does the public have room for even MORE comic characters on screen? The money has been saying yes — but it should be interesting to see what happens when this huge flick lines up against the relatively less overstuffed Batman v. Superman. Then again, some of us (myself included) who have been waiting for a Civil War movie forever. Only time will tell.
