Soaring above other blockbusters this year, Captain America: Civil War brought serious conflict into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ever since Marvel's superheroes began teaming up on the big screen, there has been a degree of friendly jostling between them, perhaps best exemplified in an early scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when various Avengers try to lift Thor's hammer
A far darker rift developed, however. After what happened toward the conclusion of Avengers: Age of Ultron, combined with an early disastrous event in Captain America: Civil War, the superheroes end up divided. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) leads Team Iron Man, in support of a United Nations panel to oversee and control all superheroes, while Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) leads Team Captain America, composed of superheroes who prefer to trust their own judgment over that of the UN panel.
Spoiler alert: Very late in the movie, with the Avengers still divided, Captain America leaves his shield behind. This, it turns out, was not an idle gesture.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo recently spoke with The Huffington Post about the implications of that scene. "I think him dropping that shield is him letting go of that identity,” said Joe Russo. “[It’s] him admitting that certainly the identity of Captain America was in conflict with the very personal choice that he was making.”
If Steve Rogers lets go of his identity as Captain America, though, does that mean he'll adapt another costumed identity? The directors didn't say. In the Marvel comic books, Steve Rogers became known as Nomad in 1974 after he became disillusioned with the U.S. government and gave up his identity as Captain America. He chose the name Nomad because it means "man without a country," so that doesn't exactly fit where Rogers is at after Captain America: Civil War. Still, it leaves open more questions that won't be answered for a while yet.
Captain America: Civil War arrives on FandangoNow on September 2. We expect to see Steve Rogers in Avengers: Infinity War, heading to theaters on May 4, 2018.
