This post contains affiliate links and our team will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on the links.
Last month in Los Angeles Team Iron Man kicked off the MARVEL Captain America: Civil War press conference with laughs and even questions from Robert Downey Jr. himself. Producer Kevin Feige shared his feelings for the complete ensemble cast and Director Anthony Russo shared with us the flawless introduction of Spiderman in this movie.
Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.
Based on the beloved Marvel comic book series, first published in 1941, Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” stars Chris Evans (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “The Avengers”) as the iconic Super Hero character Steve Rogers/Captain America; Robert Downey Jr. (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3”) as Tony Stark/Iron Man; Scarlett Johansson (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow; Sebastian Stan (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Black Swan”) as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier; Anthony Mackie (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “The Hurt Locker”) as Sam Wilson/Falcon; Don Cheadle (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “House of Lies”) as Colonel James Rhodes/War Machine; Jeremy Renner (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”) as Clint Barton/Hawkeye; Chadwick Boseman (“42,” “Get on Up”) as T’Challa/Black Panther; Paul Bettany (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3”) as Vision; and Elizabeth Olsen (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Godzilla”) as Wanda Maximoff/ Scarlet Witch.
The film also stars Paul Rudd (“Ant-Man,” “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”) as Scott Lang/Ant-Man; Emily VanCamp (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Revenge”) as Sharon Carter; Marisa Tomei (“My Cousin Vinny,” “Love the Coopers”) as May Parker; Tom Holland (“In the Heart of the Sea,” “The Impossible”) as Spider-Man; Frank Grillo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones; and Martin Freeman (“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies”) as Everett Ross; with William Hurt (“A History of Violence,” Marvel’s “The Incredible Hulk”) as Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross and Daniel Brühl (“Inglourious Basterds,” “Bourne Ultimatum”) as Zemo.
Q: Even though Civil War has this unbelievable emotional pull, were there certain technological advances that allowed for this movie to happen in the extraordinary way that it does?
Part of the popularity of big special effects driven movies is the fact that technology is such an incredibly high value. You reap the benefits if you push forward on every film and this movie has a very remarkable sequence where Robert Downey Jr. plays a 20-year-old man, which is pretty incredible. It took months and months of work on that shot. In fact, it was the last shot completed for the movie and was dropped in just 5 days ago.
Q: Can you talk about bringing Spiderman into the mix? It was so flawlessly done. Did it feel forced at all or is this one of the amazing aspects of the film?
Spiderman was very important to us, all four filmmakers. We knew we wanted to tell a very complicated story between Captain America and Iron Man, a story that went to really dark places. For us it became very important to find a way to change the dynamic in the movie by bringing in characters that didn’t have the same emotional element that the Avenger’s have with the events that unfolded, very serious and complicated events.
To bring in characters like Spiderman and Ant-Man who don’t have that emotion, it gave us an opportunity as storytellers to bring new elements into the film at a deep place in the movie. I think it balanced that big fight they have with one another at the airport.
Making his first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Spider-Man, played by Tom Holland. Playing Spider-Man is a dream-come-true for the 19-year-old Holland, who became a Spider-Man super-fan after seeing the first movie. “I remember watching that as a kid and just losing my mind,” says Holland. “It was the first superhero film I had ever seen and ever since then I’ve just been hooked. I have countless photos of me as a kid dressed as Spiderman. I have Spiderman toys everywhere and I used to have Spiderman bed sheets. So I remember when they were casting ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’—I was probably 15—I asked my agents if there was any chance. They said no, but then the third time it came around I was like, ‘Come on guys, third time lucky, can I please get an audition?’ And here I am today.”
For directors Anthony and Joe Russo, the opportunity to introduce Spider-Man in “Captain America: Civil War” was an interesting and exciting challenge. “We had a very strong point of view of what we wanted to do with the character in this film and what we felt Marvel should do with the character moving forward,” explains Joe Russo. “We were very aggressive on the casting front, looking for the right actor, the right age. I felt it was better to go much younger and to not have somebody who was 30 playing a 16 year old. It was more important to find somebody more age appropriate that would convey that energy and that naiveté that would come from being that age and having that kind of power. We also thought it was really interesting to take that naiveté and smash it into the cynicism of Tony Stark. What better way to bring that character into the MCU than through Tony Stark?”
Next up was Team Cap taking the stage. The cast seemed very excited to be there and even began to make fun of Team IronMan.
With the story of “Captain America: Civil War” taking place all over the world the production would find itself based in familiar territory, anchoring at Pinewood Atlanta Studios with various units shooting in Germany, Austria, Iceland, Puerto Rico, Indonesia, Brazil and the United Kingdom during the film’s production schedule.
Captain America: Civil War is now playing in theaters.
