By now, most of us are well aware that Marvel Studios map out their plans years in advance, but there obviously exists that one pivotal moment when a specific movie comes into being. And though Captain America: Civil War seemed like a natural choice for adaptation because it’s based on a highly popular comic book storyline, the third installment in the Sentinel of Liberty’s series could’ve wound up being very different.
While appearing on a recent live taping for Kevin Smith’s Fat Man on Batman podcast, screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Chris Markus revealed that when they were formulating plans regarding Bucky Barnes and others, head honcho Kevin Feige popped his head into their office and proposed Civil War.
Here’s what Markus had to say about that:
“So the room goes quiet, and Joe Russo just goes, ‘Oh, he just gave us a billion dollar movie. Holy crap.'”
In addition to that game-changer, there was another “Kevin Bomb” dropped during the time of production, which, of course, had to do with Spider-Man’s introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And though Markus described it as being “the best pain-in-the-ass I’ve ever had,” McFeely revealed how the story would’ve gone had Webhead not been added to the mix:
“He (Tony Stark) would recruit somebody else, he probably recruits Ant-Man, I think would be the other idea. We had a section where you could recruit somebody….I believe he was watching his daughter play soccer, it wasn’t very good.”
As fate would have it, Ant-Man ultimately wound up fighting alongside Steve Rogers and his cohorts during the now legendary airport scene, but it’s fun to ponder how differently Captain America: Civil War would’ve played out had Scott Lang gone gigantic on behalf of the other side.
