Earlier today we brought you some comments from director Anthony Russo on the possibility of The Defenders making the jump to the big screen for Avengers: Infinity War. But of course, before we get to Infinity War, Anthony and his brother Joe are set to unleash Captain America: Civil War upon us, and the co-directot has been speaking about that project during Brazil’s Comic Con Experience, stating that it was always their intention to include Spider-Man in the story.
“From the second we had the idea to do the story of Civil War, Spider-Man was a part of the story,” said Russo (via CBM). “It was a very complicated business arrangement for Marvel Studios to be able to use Spider-Man from Sony. So, we were always told by Marvel ‘Don’t count on it, you may not get to use Spider-Man, so you better have a plan B’ And we were like ‘Okay, we get it, we have a plan B if don’t get Spider-Man; we’ll figure the movie out’. But the truth is, we never had a plan B. We only have envisioned the movie with Spider-Man. He was always a part of the story. It was very important to us to reintroduce the character.”
SEE ALSO: Preview featurette for Captain America: Civil War
Russo went on to state that characters like Spider-Man and Ant-Man “enter the story a little later” and afford the filmmakers the opportunity to introduce some comic relief to what is otherwise a serious story:
““The film definitely has a more serious tone I think than any other Marvel [Studios] movie yet. And that’s kind of natural to the process because you’re really gonna turn these heroes, who have been friends and partners, against one another. And if we’re gonna have them fight for a whole movie to the end, there has to be a serious issue because these are smart people, they’re likeable people; they’re not villains, they’re good guys. And so you have to think very hard about a very complex situation that’s gonna put them in conflict with one another for an entire movie. At the same time, not all the characters in the movie have the same investment in the conflict,” he explained. “There are certain characters that come into the story a little later who don’t have the same baggage that the Avengers have in terms of what’s going on in the film. So they don’t have as much darkness to deal with in the film, so they can be a little lighter and more fun. I think the movie has a healthy balance between very serious, interesting and very surprising storytelling, and sort of light, fun wits and humor.”
SEE ALSO: Follow all of our Marvel Cinematic Universe coverage here
Captain America: Civil War is set for release on April 29th 2016 in the UK and May 6th 2016 in the States, with Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) directing a cast that includes Marvel Cinematic Universe veterans Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Falcon), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier), Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch), Paul Bettany (The Vision), Don Cheadle (James Rhondes/War Machine), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Emily VanCamp (Sharon Carter) and Frank Grillo (Brock Rumlow/Crossbones) and William Hurt (General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross) alongside new additions Chadwick Boseman (Get on Up) as T’Challa/Black Panther, Daniel Bruhl (Rush) as Baron Zemo, Martin Freeman (Sherlock) and Tom Holland (The Impossible) as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=3AMx7tPsXgQ
Originally published December 7, 2015. Updated March 2, 2020.
