CIVIL
WAR.

A BUCKY STORY WITH A BERLIN INCIDENT

HOW A CAPTAIN AMERICA SEQUEL BECAME CIVIL WAR

Captain America: Civil War began as a different film. Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely said in May 2016 that their first approach to the follow-up to Captain America: The Winter Soldier had Zemo and Bucky along with the Berlin incident. Markus said that something was missing and that it felt like “another day in the Captain America story.” The breakthrough came when Kevin Feige suggested the Civil War storyline, which McFeely said gave them a chance to do things differently.

Producer Nate Moore gave a fuller account in November 2022. The early concept, he said, was built around the Winter Soldier, Zemo and a MacGuffin based on the Madbomb, a device from the Captain America comics that makes ordinary people fight one another. He recalled Feige coming into the writers’ room to intervene.

“So, stop with the Madbomb, you guys are doing Civil War.”

Nate Moore, recalling Kevin Feige, November 2022

Moore said Feige felt the Madbomb lacked the narrative weight of a conflict between the heroes themselves, and that the team kept the Bucky storyline and Zemo while pivoting to the interpersonal conflict.

The loose source was Mark Millar’s 2006 comic of the same name, and the film kept the idea while rebuilding the machinery. In the comic, a New Warriors fight in Stamford, Connecticut, kills around 600 civilians, while the film draws on damage built up across the Avengers’ earlier battles. The comic’s Superhero Registration Act becomes the Sokovia Accords, named for the city destroyed in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Feige flagged the change in October 2014, saying it was “not about the secret identity thing” but “who reports to who.”

In March 2016, Markus and McFeely said the film would stay close to The Winter Soldier in tone while addressing the collateral damage of the earlier films. Marvel had locked in the Russos and the writers in January 2014, three months before The Winter Soldier opened, and the film was initially to focus on Steve and Bucky’s relationship.

A FILM THAT HAD TO KEEP BOTH MEN STANDING

WHY CIVIL WAR STAYED A CAPTAIN AMERICA FILM, AND WHAT TONY STARK NEEDED TO DO

Making it a Captain America film was a structural decision as well as a branding one. Markus said that the Civil War conflict is a backdrop and that the film is “100% Steve’s story,” and that the writers wanted to “drag everybody into Cap’s world” instead of letting the Avengers play in Iron Man’s. Moore said in March 2016 that Captain America was more interesting when he had “something to push up against,” and that the Russos put the conflict through Cap’s point of view because it is his movie and he has the most screen time.

“Tony has the most emotional motivation in the film.”

Joe Russo, March 2016

Joe Russo went on to say that Cap’s motivation is philosophical, which makes audiences naturally align with him. The writers worked against that advantage. McFeely said he hoped for an audience split nearly 49-51 over who was right, and Anthony Russo said that both Tony and Steve were “a little bit right and a little bit wrong.”

Robert Downey Jr. was reportedly first offered a modest role of around three weeks and asked for more involvement in the story. McFeely later said that a lot of the earlier movie survived into Civil War, including the central theme and Zemo’s characterisation.

A YEAR SPENT GIVING EVERYONE A REASON TO BE THERE

HOW BLACK PANTHER AND SPIDER-MAN WERE WORKED INTO THE ARGUMENT

The cast was the other problem. McFeely said that for a year the writers worked on giving people more than a cameo, so that each character could say, “I start here and I end here.”

Chadwick Boseman’s casting as Black Panther was announced in October 2014, and his five-film Marvel contract began with an appearance in this film. Anthony Russo said that T’Challa’s “very emotional motivation” complicated the binary conflict between Cap and Iron Man. By the character’s debut in May 2016, a solo film directed by Ryan Coogler was set to follow.

Spider-Man took longer. Talks between Marvel and Sony began after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and stalled, and a deal was announced on 9 February 2015, with the new Spider-Man debuting in this film and a Sony-released standalone film following in 2017. Tom Holland, then 19, was announced as Peter Parker in June 2015, with Jon Watts directing the standalone film. Markus said the idea was to do Spider-Man the way he was when he first came out in the comics, a high school kid. Anthony Russo said Spider-Man and Ant-Man were integrated partly for tonal balance, as “lighter and more whimsical” characters.

A NEW CAMERA, A GERMAN AIRPORT AND 99 PER CENT REPLACED

HOW THE AIRPORT FIGHT WAS SHOT, AND WHAT ILM REPLACED

The airport fight is the film’s showpiece. The Russos said about 15 minutes of the sequence was shot on brand-new IMAX cameras fresh from manufacturing, making this the first film shot with the Alexa IMAX camera. ARRI’s own 2015 announcement was more guarded, saying the ALEXA 65 camera and Prime 65 lenses would be used “for selected sequences” on the film, shot by Trent Opaloch, so only part of the film was shot this way.

The fight sequence was filmed both at Pinewood Studios and at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport. ILM’s visual effects supervisor Russell Earl said, “We ultimately ended up replacing 99% of everything that was shot,” with the actors lifted from the background. The sequence runs for approximately 20 minutes when the two sides of the civil war square off.

The effects work followed the new characters. The Third Floor built rules for Giant-Man, the directors wanting clear limits on every power, and ILM animated Spider-Man to move like an amateur at this stage of his career. Method Studios delivered 440 shots. Lola VFX de-aged Downey by around 30 years, using footage from around the time of Less Than Zero, supervisor Trent Claus said.

THE REWATCH

A $179.1 MILLION OPENING, A FUNERAL FOR PEGGY CARTER AND TWO CREDITS SCENES

Captain America: Civil War opened to $179.1 million in the US, almost double the $95.0 million of The Winter Soldier. Disney’s release of 9 May 2016 reported a domestic debut of $179.1 million and $673.1 million globally after 12 days. The film went on to earn $408.1 million domestically and $747.0 million internationally, for $1.155 billion worldwide against a $250 million budget, a total that includes a small 2020 Asia-Pacific re-release of $41,203.

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 90% critics’ score from 433 reviews, with a consensus calling it an “action-packed superhero blockbuster” with a “decidedly non-cartoonish plot.” Metacritic’s Metascore is 75 from 52 critic reviews, and the reviews behind it run wide. Robbie Collin of The Telegraph gave it a perfect 100, praising its faith in these decades-old characters, while IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote that “the bigger these movies become, the smaller they feel.”

The film runs 147 minutes. In the first of two credits scenes, Bucky chooses to return to cryostasis in Wakanda until his brainwashing can be reversed. In the second, Peter Parker experiments with his suit’s web shooters while Aunt May asks about his black eye. Stan Lee’s cameo is as a FedEx delivery man bringing Tony Stark a package from Steve Rogers, and the Russos wanted it to move the plot forward.

Peggy Carter’s funeral also falls here. Agent 13 gives the eulogy and reveals herself as Peggy’s niece, Sharon Carter. For a first watch, the film sits in the Marvel movies in release order guide directly after Deadpool, with X-Men: Apocalypse next, and in the MCU release order guide directly after WHIH Newsfront · Season 2. The MCU movies-only order guide places it after Ant-Man, and the Spider-Man movies in order guide places it after The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with Spider-Man: Homecoming next.