Back in October, it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. would be making his way into the upcoming third Captain America film which was later revealed to be Captain America: Civil War. The film is set to position his character Tony Stark against Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers in an on-screen bout that fans have been dreaming of for years.
Speaking with Empire, Downey was asked about Tony’s position in the film and how perhaps a change in his perspective (branching out of this year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron) could result in “Civil War.”
“The main thing to me is, and this is where I think the Russos are quite brilliant and where Kevin backed the play, is what sort of incident could occur and what sort of framework could we find Tony in? The clues are in “Ultron” about where we might find (Tony) next. But what would it take for Tony to completely turn around everything he’s stood for, quote-unquote, because he was the right-wing guy who could still do his own thing….There’s always the bigger overarching question, that Joss brings up all the time – it’s kind of weird that these guys would have all these throw downs all over planet Earth and it looked like a little collateral damage happened over there, and yet when the movie’s over, it’s like nobody minds. You have to figure, ‘Were you to ask the question, what would the American government do if this were real? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Tony doing something you wouldn’t imagine?’”
When asked if Tony would be the “bad guy” of the film, Downey replied:
“I wouldn’t put it that way. Ultimately it’s Steve’s story; it doesn’t say ‘Iron Man 4: Civil War’. I think that’s great too. I think Chris [Evans] has been hungry to bring even more of an underside and some shadow to that. I remember the comics – on the surface you got the sense that Cap was baseball and apple pie, but underneath there was all this churning stuff of being a man out of time. Now we know he’s made his peace with that. What’s the bigger issue? It can have a little something to do with the past, but it can be about someone becoming more modernized in their own conflict.”
Downey and Evans will be joined in the film by Chadwick Boseman in his MCU debut as Black Panther, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Daniel Bruhl in a mystery role, Frank Grillo as Crossbones, (potentially) Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and even the brand new Spider-Man as it’s been reported he will debut in the 2016 film before his own 2017 solo movie. Anthony and Joe Russo return to direct the sequel, which is slated for release on May 6, 2016.
