As the Avengers frenzy reaches an all-time high (with weeks to go until it hits theaters), the cast are doing the press circuits to rouse further intrigue into the spectacular sequel. One in particular caught up with the folks at Collider to offer some insight into another of Marvel’s next major outings: Captain America: Civil War.
Based on its mammoth cast line-up alone, the third Cap standalone movie is shaping up to be another Avengers-sized cinematic assault. According to Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johansson, it could actually swing more toward the edgier, thriller aspects of Winter Soldier than the out-and-out action tactics of the Avengers tentpoles:
“I have read the script for Civil War. You know, the film has a very different feeling than anything of Marvel’s that I’ve read or been a part of before. These films are—I don’t think darker is the right word because there’s definitely always going to be some kind of levity, and that comes in a form of humor or hope.
When you compare these films to like Batman, it’s a different feeling obviously, it’s a different audience experience, but as the stakes loom like larger and larger I think these films are kind of maturing with the audience; so there’s even more complex psychological twists that I sort of hadn’t necessarily anticipated.”
Many attributed the mature angle of Winter Soldier to its helmers, Anthony and Joe Russo, who upshifted the quality of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe by placing Steve, Natasha and co. into a more perilous landscape. And while the actress was unable to discuss Black Widow’s alliance in Civil War, she did talk of the brothers taking over from Joss Whedon on Avengers: Infinity War, and how the events of Cap’s third effort will head into that double-header:
“I’m excited to work with the Russos again. They have a very different approach to this universe than Joss, just different. It will be interesting to see how they treat all of these new characters. When we were doing Cap 2, the film felt very much like we were doing a kind of ‘70s style car-chase political-thriller, it had that kind of flavor. But they were also dealing with far less characters, the stakes were just different.
Now with Civil War it’s gonna be interesting to see how they set up this next phase, I think Cap 3 is definitely sort of like a pre-Avengers 3 and 4. It feels like that, whereas Cap 2 didn’t feel like it was necessarily part of The Avengers. I mean, it feels like a piece that fits in, but it didn’t feel like it was leading you into Avengers 2.”
Avengers: Age Of Ultron opens on May 1, 2015. Due to start production shortly in Atlanta, Captain America: Civil War is scheduled to open on May 6, 2016.