One week after the debut of Marvel Studios Avengers Age of Ultron the next film in the massive universe has started filming in Atlanta. That’s right Captain America: Civil War is already behind cameras. Marvel celebrated the production kick off by sending out an official plot description. And, the press releases has some genuine surprises in it. Like the addition of Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man to the cast, the inclusion of The Vision, and General Thunderbolt Ross.
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.
That description doesn’t offer much specificity. We do know that it’s going a different way than the original 2006 story. In that, the U.S. government introduced the Superhuman Registration Act. The act is pretty self-explanatory, but the jist of it is Iron Man is all for registration. And, Captain America leads a force against it.
It makes sense that the MCU would have to tweak the details. The universe is new. Most of the heroes within it are living out in the open. Secret Identities are not really a thing in the MCU. But the global scope of the conflict is truly where the heart of this film lies. It’s easy to imagine a United Nations effort to control superheroes after the events of Age of Ultron.
The new and nefarious villain is Baron Zemo. Although Daniel Brühl was strangely not listed as Zemo in the announcement, despite what we already know about his role. The other villain set to reappear is Frank Grillo’s BrockRumlow, a.k.a. Crossbones. The cast of the film also includes Chadwick Boseman (42, Get on Up) as T’Challa/Black Panther, Emily VanCamp (“Revenge”) as Sharon Carter/Agent 13, and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey).
Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6, 2016.