As Age of Ultron is set to dominate a second straight box-office weekend, Marvel has revealed the full cast and synopsis of its next Avengers adventure, Captain America: Civil War. (Warning: There are some Age of Ultron spoilers in the details here, so turn back if you haven’t seen it yet.)
The official synopsis for the film puts to rest months of speculation about how the company would adapt a story largely about secret identities, things that aren’t really present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for the big screen:
Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.”
Joining Evans in his third “solo” Captain America outing are enough stars to make this seem more like Avengers 2.5: Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Falcon), Paul Bettany (The Vision), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), Don Cheadle (Jim Rhodes/War Machine), and Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch) will all reprise their roles. Emily VanCamp will return as Agent 13 (also known as Sharon Carter), as will Frank Grillo’s Brock Rumlow, this time in his full Crossbones persona.
Paul Rudd will also appear as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, marking his first movie alongside other MCU heros following July 17th’s release of Ant-Man. He’ll join newcomers Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa/Black Panther), Daniel Brühl (badguy Baron Helmut Zemo), William Hurt (Hulk nemsis General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross), and the recently-cast Martin Freeman in an unknown role. There’s also still a persistent rumor that the new Spider-Man will debut in the film.
Due out May 6th, 2016, Civil War is currently in production with a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and direction from Joe and Anthony Russo. Evans recently said the film is “jump off into the next Avengers, Infinity War,” a pair of films being shot all in IMAX also by the Russos. The transition should be a smooth one with the directing duo working with so much of the cast on Civil War.
