In terms of both its critical and commercial response, Captain America: Civil War is undoubtedly viewed as one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s very best efforts. A 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes from over 400 reviews is the joint sixth highest-rating among the franchise’s 23 installments, while a box office haul of more than $1.1 billion makes it the third biggest-earning solo movie behind only Black Panther and Iron Man 3.
Admittedly, Civil War was essentially Avengers 2.5 based on the sheer volume of superheroes that dropped by to lend support, but the narrative was still all about Steve Rogers and his relationships with Tony Stark and Bucky Barnes. Anthony Mackie’s in-development solo film as the star-spangled superhero has a lot to live up to in terms of scope, scale, hype and expectations, then, but it’s a foolish thing to doubt Marvel’s ability to pull it off.
In fact, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Captain America 4 was in the works long before it was announced – that Mackie is hoping to make his first MCU film in a starring role bigger than Civil War. While specifics remain unclear for now, and it would be very unwise to try and replicate the formula to a tee, there are plenty of ways it could conceivably happen.
For one, we might have the former Falcon assemble his own team to battle against the Thunderbolts, while there’s also Sharon Carter’s Power Broker lurking in the background. The MCU is certainly going squad-mad in Phase Four, so you can’t rule out the Young Avengers showing up, either, given Elijah Bradley’s role in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In any case, let’s just hope it can live up to high bar set by Chris Evans’ Captain America trilogy.