When Captain America doesn’t agree with the government’s plan to control who and where the Avengers fight, he and his team (which include Falcon, Scarlet Witch, the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye) go on the offensive… with their fists. Only they’re not fighting the country’s own military – they’re fighting some of their best friends.
Opposite Team Captain America in this May's Captain America: Civil War is Team Iron Man. Yup, Cap’s good buddy Tony Stark is brought in to knock some sense into the Avengers leader… and let’s just say they both hit pretty hard.
How hard? This hard.
Fandango caught up with Team Iron Man members Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man) and Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa/Black Panther) when visiting the Captain America: Civil War set last year. Here’s what we learned about their side of the controversial conflict.
Who’s on Team Iron Man: Just as the members of Team Cap make a lot of sense because they’re all characters who’ve been fiercely loyal to the man who wears the red white and blue, Team Iron Man consists of folks who’ve been with him pretty much since the beginning.
We’ve got Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), his good friend Rhoadey, aka War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Vision (Paul Bettany), who Downey Jr. jokes is kinda like his kid. “If you look at what happened in Ultron, it was an immaculate conception. Tony was not setting out to have a baby with JARVIS. It just kind of happened anyway,” jokes Downey Jr.
There’s also one wild card: Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). But we’ll get to him later.
Who they’re fighting
Team Captain America, which consists of Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and the Winter Soldier, aka Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Check out our complete breakdown on Team Cap right here.
Why they’re fighting: The battle in Sokovia at the end of Age of Ultron motivates high-ranking government officials like General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt, reprising his role from The Incredible Hulk) to put forth the Sokovia Accords, a set of legal documents meant to regulate enhanced individuals.
Captain America and Iron Man find themselves on opposite sides of the debate, with Cap against regulation. “Hopefully by the time we're done it's a very complex film where you walk out of the film having a fight with your buddy or your boyfriend/girlfriend about who was right in the film,” codirector Joe Russo says.
Let's break down Team Iron Man, shall we?
Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)
Where we’ve seen him: Iron Man 1, 2, 3, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron
What he’s up to now: "It's never fun when he's in a good place, is it?" Downey Jr. jokes when asked whether the film picks up with Tony in a good place or a bad one. While he's no longer an official Avenger, having hung up that hat at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Stark (aka Iron Man) is still very much a part of the "system," and in Civil War he finds himself on the side of the government and in favor of the Sokovia Accords.
"I wouldn’t want to see anything irreparable happen..." Downey Jr. says regarding the intensity of Civil War's central premise. "...But I also like it when seemingly irreparable things occur and men and women find a way to move past it."
But what makes him come back to the fight?
"There’s a very specific incident that happens to Tony in the first act of the film that brings him back," producer Nate Moore says. "That he says I can no longer be retired, I have to once again take an active role. And it’s something that builds through the film."
How he’s evolved: While Downey Jr. admits that the film's biggest surprises and challenges are being put to Chris Evans' Captain America, he explains that Stark's position on the matter is surprisingly (for a selfish guy like him) more about the people than him having more control.
"I think what’s interesting is not so much that he’s looking for more control but he’s saying that as a group of individuals we all require a little bit more supervision than we might imagine," he says. "And that for me was just a really straight line, because I don’t like words coming out of a character’s mouth that I adore because not only is he a little bit duplicitous but he’s kind of practical in the way he thinks, and he thinks in terms of everyone’s humanity and how quickly we can go against what we think we meant when we said it or what we believe."
Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)
Where we’ve seen her: Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron
What she’s up to now: As the image above indicates, Black Widow definitely has an allegiance to Cap -- after all they went through a lot together in The Winter Soldier -- but she doesn't stick by his side. Why? Well, we ain't gonna spoil that now!
"It's difficult, because she's not trained to take sides," cowriter Christopher Markus explains. "She's trained to be a duplicitous double-agent and have loyalties for sale. Obviously she's well on her way to not being that person, but it's still… standing up next to someone and taking a side and going 'No I believe in this' is counter to her nature. So it's in a way almost toughest for her than anybody to go, 'This is my side and I'm sticking to it.'"
How she’s evolved: Though we're not exactly sure why Natasha (aka Black Widow) makes the choice to side with Team Iron Man, codirector Joe Russo likens her role in the film to that of a Breaking Bad episode.
"We made some strong choices with Natasha in this movie and it's a tricky arc that she has to play in the film," he teases. "You always want to surprise people, you don't want to make choices that are easy. I always said what I loved about Breaking Bad is that Vince Gilligan always wrote himself into the hardest corner. I would watch an episode and go 'I have no f**king idea how he's going to solve this next week,' and he would solve it. That's compelling narrative, that's compelling storytelling to me. We made a similar choice with her on this film."
Vision (Paul Bettany)
Where we’ve seen him: Avengers: Age of Ultron (as Vision), though Paul Bettany has voiced Tony Stark’s AI assistant JARVIS in all three Iron Man movies, as well as The Avengers.
What he's up to now: Since Vision has been with the team for awhile, we begin to see him assimilating to life on earth, much in the same way we saw Thor work hard to fit in as his character evolved.
"Vision doesn't walk around the Avengers compound in his cape, he walks around in clothes," codirector Joe Russo reveals. "He's trying to assimilate. So you just make choices like that that try to pull the characters to as human a realm as we possibly can."
How he's evolved: As expected, Tony Stark's baby -- or as Downey Jr. refers to it, Vision's "immaculate conception" -- is on Team Iron Man despite being one of the newest members of the Avengers team being trained by Captain America. Codirector Joe Russo tells us Vision's role in this film will revolve around him learning more about what he's actually capable of.
"If Vision is too powerful then what do you need everybody else for?" he says. "So there are limitations to him as a character. His arc specifically in this movie is about him discovering his limitations."
Rhodey, aka War Machine (Don Cheadle)
Where we’ve seen him: Iron Man (played by Terrence Howard), Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron
What he’s up to now: We learn at the end of Age of Ultron that Rhodey, aka War Machine, is now one of the newest Avengers. But after spending a year together with his new team, training under the leadership of Captain America, he -- like Black Widow and Vision -- will reveal his true loyalties when his buddy Tony Stark comes calling.
"That’s why Civil War is powerful, because it’s not a bunch of people who just met each other arguing. It’s a bunch of people who spent a year together kind of growing as a unit and becoming real friends all of a sudden being pulled apart," explains producer Nate Moore.
How he's evolved: Rhodey's no longer chummin' it up with the rest of the heroes -- in Civil War, we'll most likely see the character go to places, both physically and emotionally, that we haven't seen from him yet. I mean, this image from the film certainly speaks for itself.
“I never know where the character’s going to go, but he’s become more and more and in the next one, you’ll see that what happens to Rhodey is a little bit more intense and pivotal to what happens in the rest of the stories,” Cheadle said earlier this year while promoting the film Miles Ahead.
8 Things You Gotta Know About Black Panther
One of the most anticipated aspects of Captain America: Civil War has to do with the introduction of the character Black Panther, as portrayed by Chadwick Boseman. Black Panther will get his own solo movie in February of 2018, but before he does he’ll inject himself right square in the middle of the heated, fist-throwin’ debate between Captain America and Iron Man.
So what’s the deal with the character who hails from the fictional African nation of Wakanda?
His name is T’Challa
When he doesn't go by Black Panther, you can refer to him as T'Challa. Created by Stan Lee, Black Panther first appeared in comics in 1966 and was the first black superhero in mainstream American comics.
"We want to give enough of that character where you go, 'Man, I really got to see the Black Panther in that movie. And I got to feel T’Challa’s character and the idea of Wakanda and the idea of vibranium and all that stuff," producer Nate Moore says in terms of how Panther fits into the ensemble. "There’s still plenty of story [and] we still have great ideas for the standalone movie. But you get enough of it in this movie that I think you are going to be happy."
He’s royalty
Unlike any of the other heroes, T’Challa is the only one who literally comes from royalty – and Boseman tells us one of biggest differences between his character and some of the others is that everyone knows his identity; they know who he is because he’s a prince.
“You meet me as the Prince of Wakanda,” Boseman reveals. “You meet me as a politician/monarch, not as a superhero. I think the difference in him is that he's a ruler of a country. I wouldn't even call him a superhero. In the mythology of the country, he's not a superhero. He's a warrior, and it's part of their tradition.”
He’s not really on anyone’s side
While the images of Black Panther readying for battle alongside Team Iron Man may give off the illusion that he’s one one particular side, that’s not actually the case. “When we were starting to crack this story, there was an opportunity introduce some cool character who definitely played a different kind of role than being on either Cap’s side or Tony’s side,” producer Nate Moore explains. “And the Black Panther seemed like an obvious choice.”
“Panther has a great place in the story, and Wakanda has a great place in the story, cowriter Christopher Markus adds. “So even if he wasn't the seed of a franchise, he'd be a good character with a justified place in the movie.”
He’s got the most intimidating fighting style of all the Marvel heroes
If you combined the movements of a ferocious cat with those of a martial arts master, you’d get something resembling the fighting style of Black Panther. His movements are straight up scary, and the brief moments we got to glimpse him throwing a little smackdown on Winter Soldier were some of the most memorable of the entire visit.
“The way Chad moves I think is unexpected,” producer Nate Moore says. “So you go, ‘Black Panther! He’s cool! He’s going to punch people! He’s got claws!’ [Well] Chad brings a certain movement. And it’s through his own experience with the martial arts that we hadn’t really talked about. He has a very kind of slick cat-like walk that does feel like Kabuki trying to be a cat but is very much his own thing.”
“He's got a movement style that he brought because he has a background in martial arts and it's fascinating,” codirector Joe Russo adds. “He moves like none of the other characters in the universe. We really distinguished him.”
This is not a Black Panther origin story
The cool thing about Panther’s presence in Civil War is that this isn’t an origin story of any kind.
“I'm just kind of thrown into the middle,” Boseman says. “It's definitely not an origin story, no.”
There’s more than one Black Panther
While we’re not sure how multiple Black Panthers may or may not factor into the finished movie (or future ones), Boseman did let slip that he may not be the only Black Panther on the block.
“I am just thrown into the mix. I am already a Black Panther -- a Black Panther,” Boseman teases with a sly smirk.
Yes, he’ll have an accent
If you’re wondering whether Boseman will bring a unique accent to the character, we have your answer: he will. He’ll have a Wakandian accent.
“The accent for the character is also very singular,” producer Nate Moore explains. “In the same way that the Sokovian accent for Wanda and Pietro on Avengers 2 is something that is very distinct, I think when you hear the Wakandan accent you are going to be like, ‘I didn’t think about that. That’s right. He wouldn’t speak in perfect American English or British English. He’s going to have his own thing going.’ So that’s pretty fun.”
Comic book fans teared up the first time Boseman wore the Black Panther costume on set
The inclusion of Black Panther in Civil War is a historic one for Marvel, and one that everyone on set was excited about, but also moved by.
“Chadwick brings real gravitas to the role,” codirector Joe Russo says. “He really personifies that character beautifully. Today was the first day that the character worked in costume, and when he came out on set there were some comic book fans who were just tearing up. It's a real moment for people to see this character for the first time on screen. People who grew up and championed this character as kids and was a role model for them, their favorite hero. The sense of that as a comic book fan, there was historic nature of getting him on screen for the first time.”
Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6.
More from the set of Civil War:
'Captain America: Civil War' Set Visit: This Is the 'Godfather' of Superhero Movies
This 'Captain America: Civil War' Scene Is the Craziest Action Sequence Marvel's Ever Attempted
