When Kevin Feige was revealing the title of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third Captain America movie, he trolled everyone by announcing that Serpent Society was coming to theaters in May 2016, before he quickly backtracked to confirm that Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers would return in Civil War instead.
It left a lot of people confused, especially those that don’t possess an intimate knowledge of the Marvel Comics back catalogue, but in true Feige fashion, his troll job was one designed to pop the longtime fans and nobody else. However, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Anthony Mackie’s standalone outing as Captain America was happening long before it was confirmed – that the Serpent Society will play a significant role in the story of the MCU’s fourth star-spangled blockbuster.
As you may have inferred from the moniker, the Serpent Society are a group of supervillains who all take their names from snakes. The team was founded in a 1985 issue of Captain America, when Sidewinder drew inspiration from the previous incarnations of the Serpent Squad and decided to recruit Anaconda, Black Mamba, Death Adder, Asp, Bushmaster, Cobra, Cottonmouth, Diamondback, Princess Python and the Rattler to aid his cause.
There’s no word on how the Serpent Society will factor into the next solo Captain America movie, but there is at least one ready-made storytelling avenue in place. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson essentially donates his wings to Joaquin Torres, who eventually becomes the new Falcon in the comics. Torres was captured and experimented on by the Serpent Society, which could be their way into the mythology, but a ragtag group of snake-themed villains would probably need their origins tweaked a little bit so they don’t come across as ridiculous.