Even without El Mayimbe in its ranks, Latino-Review is still busy scooping up whatever rumors about the Marvel Cinematic Universe it can find. Today, the site’s Kellvin Chavez reports he may have uncovered the nature of Martin Freeman’s mystery role in Captain America: Civil War, and it’s a doozy.
Apparently, Freeman isn’t playing an “interrogator,” as previously reported, but Edward Chase, the Prime Minister of England. British soldiers are involved in whatever catastrophic event involving Captain America’s Avengers team ends up triggering the Civil War, so he’s considered to be one of the Cap’s main adversaries, a key political figure arguing for more superhero accountability and upping governmental pressure to rein the Avengers in.
In typical Marvel fashion, the seeds for Chase’s introduction may have already been planted, in a throwaway line from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Sharp-eared moviegoers will recall that arms dealer Ulysses Klaw (Andy Serkis) was threatening someone over the phone right before Ultron interrupted him and ended up disarming the baddie (literally). Into the phone, Klaw growled, “Now, Minister, where were we?”
Evidently, that Minister was Chase, who was interested in purchasing vibranium to create weapons capable of standing against extraordinarily powerful superheroes. This conversation will be referenced in Civil War during a discussion between Chase and Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl), one of the pic’s many villains. Of course, the crowded movie will also introduce Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), so Klaw will probably play a role, and Chase’s involvement in standing against superheroes could be one way to bring the one-armed Panther adversary back into the fold.
Freeman typically plays beset-upon good guys, so it will be interesting to see him in a somewhat villainous role, though the issue with Civil War is that the blockbuster seems so overstuffed with characters and plots that one wonders whether he’ll actually get a chance to leave an impression.
Captain America: Civil War opens on May 6, 2016.
