Long before Marvel had sussed out its negotiations with Robert Downey Jr. for Captain America: Civil War – the actor’s MCU contract was set to expire just before the blockbuster sequel entered production – directors Joe and Anthony Russo were left mapping out alternate storylines for their Winter Soldier follow-up. And it seems those early brainstorming sessions veered into bizarre territory.
Case in point: If Downey Jr. was unable to reprise his role as Marvel’s Iron Man, Steve Roger’s star-spangled hero could well have been going up against zombies in the threequel’s third act – or, as Joe Russo describes, people infected by the Madbomb that displayed all the characteristics of your typical cinematic flesh-muncher.
[zergpaid]Word comes by way of Entertainment Weekly, where the Russo Brothers revealed that, alongside Civil War screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, began to map out a variety of alternatives that were decidedly different to the finished product fans know and love.
There was a period where we did discuss a third act that revolved around the Madbomb from Cap mythology. It didn’t have anything to do with Civil War, and if we couldn’t get Downey – in the very, very early conversations before we nailed him – somebody pitched the idea of a third-act that revolved around the Madbomb, which makes people crazy. It almost like zombifies them – but not literally.
Pulling inspiration from Jack Kirby’s “Madbomb” arc from ’76, Captain America 3 was designed to present a host of moral conundrums for Chris Evans’ hero that wouldn’t have involved the Avengers much at all.
The notion of the Madbomb would have been Cap having to fight civilians and how he would he handle that. We were always trying to put him into these interesting moral conundrums because of his nature. That would have made a compelling third act because if civilians are the antagonists, how could he stop them without killing them.
Bringing some levity to those revelations, BuzzFeed has unearthed an early snippet of the Civil War gag reel, introducing a more light-hearted side of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
You’ll be able to clock eyes on the full gag reel – and much more – when Captain America: Civil War launches across DVD and Blu-Ray on September 13.