Before Captain America: Civil War hit theatres, there were numerous rumors which pointed to the film killing off Steve Rogers, as that’s what happened in the comic book arc of the same name. Ultimately, those rumors turned out to be just that, and as we all know, Cap is still alive and well in the MCU. That wasn’t always to be the case, though.
At a recent “For Your Consideration” screening of Civil War last night, directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that at one point, they actually entertained the idea of killing off the beloved Avenger, though it seems like it was never a very serious possibility.
When asked if they considered it, here’s what they had to say:
” We did for a beat. We talk about everything. I think the thing to remember though, is, we do talk about every possible scenario over and over and over again for months and months and months. We talked about it. But it never made its way into a realistic outline.”
It wasn’t only Steve Rogers who was marked for a possible death, either. According to Joe Russo, a number of characters could have ended up in a grave at the end of the film.
“We talked about lots of potential characters dying at the end of the movie. And we thought that it would undercut what is really the rich tension of the movie, which is this is Kramer vs Kramer. It’s about a divorce. If somebody dies, it would create empathy, which would change and allow for repair, and we didn’t want to do that.”
Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige added, “In the amazing comic book story, which certainly the conceit of this movie is based on and some of the specifics — during their big battle, which has a hundred times as many characters, a character dies. And we talked about that for a while. And, ultimately, we thought what happened to Rhodey would be enough of a downer.”
So, there you have it. Looks like those rumors stemmed from something concrete then, and the filmmakers just decided to go in the opposite direction once they thought it through. A lot of people still would have liked to see them kill off Cap at the end, but personally, I think they made the right decision in keeping him alive and certainly ended the movie in a wholly satisfying manner.
Tell us, would you have preferred to see Steve Rogers die in Captain America: Civil War? Sound off below and let us know!