Captain America is one of the most beloved MCU characters and is the star in one of the best Marvel movies to ever hit the big screen, Captain America: Civil War. However, it turns out that the 2016 action movie, which saw the Avengers stand off against one another, wasn’t always on the cards. In fact, Captain America 3 was first pitched to resemble a spy movie along the lines of Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman franchise.
In an interview with The Town podcast, Marvel producer Nate Moore, revealed the original plans for the superhero movie Captain America 3, and how ultimately, Studio Head Kevin Feige wasn’t sold on the first idea. Captain America: Civil War was initially envisaged to feature a plot around something that the producers called “a MacGuffin around the Madbomb”. Basically, the story would have followed the events once “the Madbomb goes off and causes normal people to start fighting each other.”
However, Feige – who wanted to do Civil War from the get-go – didn’t take to the idea, even after he let the team come up with a draft of the Kingsman-like flick. Feige soon stopped the Madbomb idea and put the crew firmly on the Marvel comics Civil War storyline instead.
“I went to the writer’s room with [screenwriters] [Christopher] Markus, [Stephen] McFeely, and [directors] Joe [Russo], and Anthony [Russo], and Kevin peeked his head in, and he goes, ‘So, stop with the Madbomb, you guys are doing Civil War,'” Moore recalled. “And I was like, ‘Ah, fuck.’ And Joe was like, ‘Yes! Civil War? Awesome!’ And then we had to figure out how to do Civil War. ”
“But he was like, there wasn’t a big enough idea that would get audiences excited, and we did it,” Moore explained. “Look, it was scary, and when you’re throwing out a whole thing and starting new, it’s always a bit weird, but he was right. He was right. We were still able to pay off the Bucky storyline. We still figured out how to use Zemo. But the central conceit of the movie was something that audiences would gravitate towards, and they did.”
Ultimately Feige’s call was the right one. Civil War went on to be a massive success, earning $1.153 billion at the worldwide box office and scoring the title of the highest-grossing movie of 2016.
For more Avengers action, here is our guide to Marvel Phase 5.