Iron Man in Captain America 3 - Marvel's Civil War

So it turns out 2016 is now officially the year of superhero vs. superhero movies, and I like it...

Captain America 3 was one of my most anticipated movies of 2016 and is now definitely in the top 3, if this story turns out to be true. A few days ago Variety reported that Robert Downey Jr had signed on to reprise his role as Iron Man in the third Captain America movie, which will be directed by the Russo brothers. This somewhat sets the stage for Marvel's Civil War and will pit 2 fan favourites against each other.

Immediately after hearing this a whole wave of questions inundated my mind at the exact same time and I'm going to try and get them all out in some sort of question. The first one was; will they stay loyal to the source material? In the comic book storyline the government creates a superhero registration act which Iron Man agrees with and Cap really does not. Its admittedly difficult adapting a comic book into a movie replica but they can do it easily if they follow on from the events of Age of Ultron. If you have Iron Man create Ultron which leads to the death of many and the destruction of cities, then he'll probably feel guilty about it and willingly accept the government's new programme. Cap on the other hand will probably say that it invades civil liberties and pit against the programme. To me this sounds the likely route they will take.

My next question was is this really Captain America 3 or Avengers 3? I thought about it for a while and while it may seem like that at first, I think that the film will tell the narrative via Cap's perspective and we'll see events play out through his eyes.

This conveniently leads onto my third question which is will they make Iron Man the villain? Well let's take a step back for a second. Tony Stark has proven himself to be a guy who does what is right and does not show any traits of villainy. The fact that he and Rogers will disagree on something doesn't make him a villain. What it does do is create a fascinating dynamic to 2 already broad and fleshed out characters and is something I can't wait to see how they pull off on the big screen.

And finally, what will happen to the Avengers? Will they not show up? Will they split up and join whoever they agree with? Will the Avengers disintegrate before new characters like Ant Man and Doctor Strange form a new team to defend the world from Thanos?

I couldn't possibly predict right now. However, I do think that Captain America and/or Iron Man will die. Robert Downey Jr has flirted with the idea of leaving the MCU and Chris Evans has said that he wants to branch off into other acting roles. Its weird when you think about one (or both) of The Avenger's poster boys dying at the hand of another, but its an artistic direction I feel Marvel can pull off without alienating or creating a villain out of our beloved characters.

All I can say is, bring on 2016!


Thanks for reading,
Matt