‘Captain America: Civil War’ Writers Explain Why It’s Not an Avengers Sequel

“This, really, is the conclusion of the three-movie arc for Captain America and Bucky Barnes,” Stephen McFeely tells TheWrap

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Marvel

“Captain America: Civil War” features more than enough Avengers to qualify as the third film in that super franchise — so why isn’t it “The Avengers 3”?

“Civil War” screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFreely understand the script is stacked with heroes on both sides of the film’s central showdown — Captain America v. Iron Man — but told TheWrap why it really belongs to Chris Evans.

“This is definitely a Cap movie. This, really, is the conclusion of the three-movie arc for Captain America and Bucky Barnes,” said McFeely of Evans’ character and his war buddy Barnes (Sebastian Stan).

It also features characters central to previous Cap sequel “The Winter Soldier,” like Scarlett Johansson‘s Black Widow, Anthony Mackie‘s Flacon, Emily VanCamp‘s Agent 13 and Frank Grillo‘s Crossbones — but the cameos from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe are numerous and, as each addition leaked from production through the first screenings, dazzled a lot of fans. 

Paul Rudd‘s Ant-Man, Elizabeth Olsen‘s Scarlet Witch, Paul Bettany‘s Vision, Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye, Don Cheadle‘s War Machine and the introduction of Chadwick Boseman‘s Black Panther and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man are all included in the Friday release from Disney.

“The different franchises are about, in a loose way, different areas — the Cap movies are very much about government and politics and freedom and loyalty. And this movie is too,” Markus added. “The same as, in his wheelhouse, Tony is obviously a technological genius and all business. Thor is Thor.”

Not that it was always a joy in the writers’ room as the movie’s army kept adding heroes lured by the cross-pollination opportunity.

“There was a moment when they said, ‘Spider-Man is absolutely in’ — and we were torn. We went, ‘That’s great! Then … that’s more work!’” McFeely admitted.

“But it’s just fun. The more people you get in, the more it justifies the title. We needed a base amount of heroes to fill out that airport fight,” he added, referring to one of the film’s iconic battle scenes.

In perhaps their best argument for the mass ensemble, Markus simply said: “If you only have four people punching each other, it’s boring, no matter how violent it gets.”

The pair will next tackle the script for the actual “Avengers: Age of Ultron” sequel, tentatively titled “The Avengers: Infinity War.”

Markus and McFeely said the amount of heroes in that film, due May 4, 2018, is a “quantum leap” from “Civil War.”

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