Development In March 2014,
Anthony and Joe Russo confirmed that they had signed on to return as directors for a third Captain America film, along with
Chris Evans as Captain America,
Kevin Feige as producer, and
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely as screenwriters. Markus and McFeely had been working on the screenplay since late 2013, while the Russo brothers began work in February 2014. The re-hiring of the directors, three months before the release of
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, came as a result of Marvel executives being impressed with
test screenings of that film. Evans earned $15 million for the film. In an April 2014 interview, Joe Russo described the project as a continuation of the story from
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: "What's nice about the film is that ... it's a two-parter. There's a journey that the
Winter Soldier goes on that isn't complete yet." That month, Marvel announced a release date of May 6, 2016, and
Trent Opaloch, who was the cinematographer on
The Winter Soldier, said he would return for the sequel. In July, Markus and McFeely stated that they were midway through a first draft for the film, on which principal photography was expected to begin in April 2015. The following month, they stated that they were looking to make the tone of the film "an amalgam" of
The First Avenger and
The Winter Soldier, with the Russos likening it to a
psychological thriller, citing
Seven,
Fargo, and
The Godfather as influences, along with
westerns and
Brian De Palma's films. The Russos also stated that "a good portion of [
Civil War is] actually funnier than
Winter Soldier" with a more comedic tone and lighter moments throughout. In August 2014, the Russos stated that the film would be set "a couple years" after
The Winter Soldier, and would continue to focus on Steve Rogers' relationship with
Bucky Barnes as well as the political themes related to Captain America. Anthony stated, "The character was invented for an explicitly political purpose. So it's hard to get away from that nature." The Russos also said that they would be "bringing some new elements to the table that will give us a twist on
Winter Soldier", and indicated that filming was scheduled to begin in Atlanta. They described themselves as "ecstatic" with a first draft of the screenplay submitted by Markus and McFeely, and also stated that the film's title would be announced "in a month or so at most", and that the concept and title for the film came from Feige, who had it "for a while". In September, Joe expanded by saying the film would have another "big idea that alters the universe as a whole in some way" similar to S.H.I.E.L.D. falling in
The Winter Soldier. The rest of the film, such as the characters, story, and tone, would be left open to the Russos' and writers' interpretations.
Pre-production By October 2014,
Robert Downey Jr. had entered final negotiations to reprise his role as
Tony Stark / Iron Man in the film. Downey was added in order for the film to adapt the 2006–07 "
Civil War" comic book storyline written by
Mark Millar, which pitted Iron Man against Captain America. At the end of the month, it was confirmed that
Sebastian Stan would return as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier. A few days later, Marvel revealed that the film would be titled
Captain America: Civil War, confirming Downey's appearance and announcing that
Chadwick Boseman would appear in the film as
Black Panther ahead of his own
solo film. Feige also confirmed that the film would be the first in the MCU's
Phase Three slate of films. Anthony Russo stated that adapting the "Civil War" storyline was not always the intended storyline and direction for the film when the brothers initially signed on to return as directors. Markus expanded on this, saying the original concept for a third Captain America film "never got to draft", with Feige at some point telling the writing team to begin adapting "Civil War" around their original ideas. McFeely also added that, despite the shift in direction for the film, "The central theme, even the way
Zemo is operating, are from that [early] iteration." The Russos revealed that, had negotiations with Downey to appear in the film failed, they would have used the Madbomb storyline from the Captain America comics, which was eventually used as a plot point in the
first season of the
Agent Carter TV series. The premise for the film would have centered on Zemo detonating the Madbomb, which would "turn hordes of people into berserkers" to present a physical threat to Captain America, while still pitting heroes against each other, as some would be zombified due to the Madbomb, to satisfy an "emotional component" for the film. McFeely said that the idea of basing a film on "Civil War" had "been on and off the table for a while" at Marvel Studios, explaining, "it's a challenge to do it and make sure that all the characters that we've established, and everyone's established in the MCU are serviced and sound correct. Because there's a difference between the characters in "Civil War", which was written in 2006, 2007. The MCU doesn't exist [when it was written]. There isn't a Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Evans who has helped create the character[s] so we need to make sure that that template gets adjusted". Joe Russo added that the "essence" of "Civil War" was used, such as "the concept of registration, the notion that heroes need to be either monitored or controlled because their power can be scary" being applicable. Anthony Russo expanded, "in a lot of ways [superhero registration] can be a political issue, and we didn't want the conflict of the movie to solely exist on that level. We wanted to figure out very personal reasons why everyone's relationship to this idea of registration is going to become complicated. That's what the relationship between Steve and Bucky allowed us to do, to get very personal in terms of why people would lean one way or the other." Executive producer Nate Moore added that "it felt like it was kind of the right time" to adapt "Civil War" given
The Avengers, plus many of the
Phase Two films (
Thor: The Dark World,
The Winter Soldier, and
Avengers: Age of Ultron), all dealt with "world-ending experiences. We felt like we had to tell the next step in that story, which is ... what is the world's reaction?" Executives at
Marvel Entertainment balked at the idea of Captain America and Iron Man coming to blows at the end of the film and wanted the Avengers to unite to fight Zemo and the supersoldiers at the Hydra base in Siberia instead. The Russos were not happy with this idea, with Joe Russo saying, "There's nothing interesting about that film. We're not here to make that movie. We're not interested in telling another superhero story." Feige supported the Russos, who were going to leave the film if the changes were forced on them. This prompted
Walt Disney Studios head
Alan F. Horn to back the Russos in making the film as originally intended, and led to oversight of Marvel Studios being moved from Marvel Entertainment to Walt Disney Studios in 2015. In November 2014,
Daniel Brühl joined the cast in an unspecified role, while
Anthony Mackie and
Frank Grillo were confirmed to return as
Sam Wilson / Falcon and
Brock Rumlow / Crossbones, respectively. Following the November 2014
hacking of Sony Pictures' computers, emails between
Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman
Amy Pascal and president
Doug Belgrad were released stating that Marvel wanted to include
Spider-Man (whose film rights are licensed to Sony) in the film, but talks between the studios concerning this were believed to have broken down. However, in February 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios
reached a licensing deal for the use of Spider-Man in an MCU film, and reports indicated that the character would indeed appear in
Civil War. The Russos stated they were
lobbying for months to include the character in the film. In January 2015, Mackie revealed that, in addition to Atlanta, filming locations would include
Puerto Rico and
Berlin, while the Russo brothers confirmed that
Scarlett Johansson would return in the film as
Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow.
Editor Jeffrey Ford, who worked on
The Winter Soldier, also signed on for
Civil War. In March 2015,
Jeremy Renner was revealed to be reprising his role as
Clint Barton / Hawkeye. The next month, it was revealed that the film would be converted to
3D in post-production, and that Brühl would be playing Helmut Zemo. Additionally,
Elizabeth Olsen revealed she would reprise her role in the film as
Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch.
Filming Principal photography began on April 27, 2015, in
Fayette County, Georgia, at
Pinewood Atlanta Studios, under the
working title Sputnik. Other filming locations in the
Atlanta metropolitan area included the
Buckhead district of Atlanta; the Peachtree Christian Church in
Midtown Atlanta;
Downtown Atlanta, including an area near
Philips Arena known as The Gulch, which served as the market in Lagos;
Norcross, Georgia;
Porsche's headquarters in Atlanta at
Aerotropolis Atlanta, which served as the Avengers' headquarters in the film; and the Atlanta Civic Center, which served as the IFID (Institute for Infectious Diseases) laboratory in Lagos; the latter's interiors doubled as
MIT, and a third part was used for a Berlin location. Trent Opaloch served as director of photography, while
Chad Stahelski,
David Leitch, and
The Winter Soldier stuntman Spiro Razatos were
second unit directors. In early May, Marvel announced that
Martin Freeman was cast in an unspecified role, while also reprising roles in the film would be
Paul Bettany as
Vision,
Don Cheadle as
James Rhodes / War Machine,
Paul Rudd as
Scott Lang / Ant-Man,
Emily VanCamp as
Sharon Carter, and
William Hurt as
Thaddeus Ross.
Samuel L. Jackson, who appeared as
Nick Fury in the two previous Captain America films, said he was "surprised" to discover that he would not be in
Captain America: Civil War, after "the Russo Brothers told [him he] was." Moore stated that Fury was not included "because he didn't add anything to the
Civil War story they were telling", while Markus stated that they did not want him to choose any particular side because "that's not his place in the universe". On each of the character's ties to the plot, Anthony Russo said that each character was examined on a personal level to see how they would respond to the idea of registration. On the portrayal of each character, Joe Russo said that he and his brother had strong "emotional" and "psychological connection[s] to [these] characters" as children, adding, "We want to reach into that and understand what elementally motivated you to love the character. That's what we try to bring out in the characters now." He also mentioned that they were "trying to honor the feeling of naturalism and to honor the feeling of reality [with the film]." After the reveal of the film's full cast, many outlets and fans began referring to the film as "
Avengers 2.5", given the variety and ensemble nature of the cast, usually reserved for the
Avengers films, and the fact that the film no longer felt like a Captain America-centric one, as with
The Winter Soldier. In response to this, Feige said, "What's fun about
Civil War though is, as you know from the comics, it's a very simple story. And it really has to be, to accommodate that many players. It's very much a Captain America movie and it's very much a sequel to the
Winter Soldier in ways I don't think people [will expect].... It's a very simple structure that allows you to have these amazing character interactions in a way that I don't think becomes overwhelming." Feige also revealed that
Hope van Dyne /
Wasp was in an original draft of the film, after receiving the Wasp costume at the end of
Ant-Man, but was cut because "there are so many characters in
Civil War that we didn't want to do her a disservice," saying Marvel was "saving" the character for a better environment to reveal van Dyne in the Wasp costume for the first time and see "her dynamic with Scott [Lang] in a way it could play out". At the end of May, the Russo brothers, along with Feige and Pascal, held a
screen test in Atlanta for six teenage actors that were being eyed for the role of Peter Parker / Spider-Man, with the actors testing against Downey and Evans for "chemistry";
Tom Holland was cast as the character the next month, to also appear in a solo film. The Russos "were pretty vocal about who we wanted for the part", pushing to cast an actor close to the age of Peter Parker in the comics, in order to differentiate from the previous portrayals, with Anthony Russo believing Holland's age was one of the factors Sony was initially hesitant on Holland for the role. They also praised Holland for having a dancing and gymnastics background. Downey felt of all the actors he tested with, Holland brought "gravitas and the confidence to be able to take on the mantle" of portraying Spider-Man. At the time, Marvel did not confirm his involvement in
Civil War, due to being
contractually obligated not to talk about his inclusion publicly. The Russos discussed this, saying that the various business deals and agreements stemming from the sharing of the character rights, such as on a promotional and commercial level, "were always lagging slightly behind how we were using the character. We were always in danger of upsetting the deal—there were still sensitive issues going on between the two studios that they needed to agree on." Holland was confirmed to appear in the film in July 2015, by
Jonathan M. Goldstein, one of the writers of the solo Spider-Man film, and later by
Entertainment Weekly from a set visit.
Jon Watts, director of
Spider-Man: Homecoming, was on set for the filming of Spider-Man's scenes, in order to "see what they were doing with it, and that informed where we eventually took it," and provide "ideas about this and that", such as what Parker's wardrobe and bedroom should look like, "to make sure we were all on the same page so that [
Homecoming] transitions seamlessly with theirs." Anthony Russo stated that, despite Marvel telling them to have a "
plan B" should the deal with Sony fail, the Russos never created one because "it was very important to us to reintroduce" Spider-Man in the film, adding, "We only have envisioned the movie with Spider-Man." By the end of June, filming reached the halfway mark, with production moving to Germany in early August. Filming locations in Germany included the
Olympic Stadium,
Potsdamer Platz,
Internationales Congress Centrum Berlin and
Messe Berlin in Berlin, and the
Leipzig/Halle Airport in
Schkeuditz. Studio work was done at
Babelsberg Studio. Additional filming also took place in Puerto Rico and Norway, and was scheduled to in Iceland. Principal photography
wrapped on August 22, 2015.
Captain America: Civil War was the first film to use
IMAX's digital 2D cameras, made in partnership with
Arri, which was a customized version of the
Arri Alexa 65. According to Joe Russo, approximately fifteen minutes of the film, the sequence where the two factions fight at Leipzig/Halle Airport, which was described as having "incredible scale to it" and referred to by the directors as the "
splash panel", were shot with the cameras. Opaloch noted that there were discussions late in pre-production to shoot the entire film with the Alexa 65 cameras. However, because of how close it was to the start of shooting as well as the idea being "such a large-scale undertaking", it was decided to only use them for the airport sequence, with the rest of film being shot on
Arri Alexa XT digital cameras. For the airport sequence, Opaloch rigged the Alexa 65s to a
Technocrane, a
Steadicam, a
dolly as well as a drone for flyover shots, which had its own dedicated team operating it. Because of the amount of resolution the Alexa 65s offered, Opaloch chose to use medium close-ups instead of close-ups, and for his wide shots, hold the shot a bit longer, "maybe with a slight camera move that allows the viewer to take it all in."
Post-production In September 2015,
Mark Ruffalo, who plays
Bruce Banner / Hulk in the MCU films, stated that his character was originally in the
Civil War script, but was removed due to the end of
Age of Ultron, as Marvel did not "want to reveal where [he is] and why" in this film. Markus added that as soon as the Hulk joined a side, the fight would be quickly over, saying, "You've got to kind of choose your roster [of characters] depending on what kind of fight you want to have." He later explained that he contemplated having the Hulk appear at the very end of the film, but decided against it, feeling that he was over-stuffing the film with characters, adding, "[The Hulk] has clearly gone somewhere at the end of
[Age of] Ultron, and that's a story. Don't blow it off and put it in a little tiny chunk just to put in a little extra filigree on our movie." Additionally, Ross' alter ego,
Red Hulk, was also considered for inclusion, but the Russos felt that part of the character would need a proper backstory which they could not afford to give in the already crowded film. They felt that Ross "was there sort of as the government's agenda and not to add another complicated super powered character to the mix." Spider-Man's
Iron Spider suit was also considered. That November, Joe Russo stated that the theme of the film was betrayal, calling it "extremely emotional. [The film] hinges on that emotion, and on a very personal level we didn't want [it] to become about politics and people arguing about platitudes. The third act is built around a very personal moment between [Captain America and Iron Man]." The Russos spent a great deal of time with Markus, McFeely, and Moore to ensure each character's emotional arc tracked through the entire film correctly, though realized that at some point "you have to sacrifice logic for expediency". Speaking about the post-production process in January 2016, the Russo brothers said, "This has been the easiest post process we've ever had on a film. We're very happy with how the movie was. Everyone is very happy with where the movie was. For us, the tricky thing is the effects because it's a very complicated movie and there are some really big sequences in the film. The effects are on a much larger scale than the work we did on
Winter Soldier. That's the part that becomes really difficult because you don't have a lot of time and everyone has very high standards. So everyone starts killing themselves at this point...we'll be done with the movie in two and a half months." They also stated that the film would be doing "a few reshoots" in mid-to-late January. In February, Freeman's character was revealed to be
Everett K. Ross, and
Gwyneth Paltrow was reported to have joined the film for the January reshoots, reprising her role as
Pepper Potts; however, in April 2016, it was revealed that Paltrow does not appear in the film, with Anthony Russo explaining that Paltrow's contract with Marvel had ended after
Iron Man 3, and "we decided early on that we could make Pepper's break-up [with Tony Stark] have an emotional impact without actually having a scene with her." On March 16, 2016, the Russos stated the film was "about a week and a half away from" completion, with Joe adding that the film would have a
post-credits scene, with the possibility for two or three total. The film was completed on April 4, 2016. Later in April,
Alfre Woodard and
Jim Rash were revealed to be cast in the film, while Feige explained that
Black Panther director
Ryan Coogler contributed some dialogue for Black Panther in several scenes during reshoots. At the film's premiere, it was revealed that
Marisa Tomei appears in the film as
May Parker, Peter Parker's aunt.
Visual effects (bottom) shots of the fight scene at
Leipzig/Halle Airport Nearly 20 visual effects studios worked on
Captain America: Civil War including
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Lola VFX,
Method Studios,
Luma Pictures,
DNEG,
Image Engine,
Trixter,
Cinesite, and
The Third Floor amongst others. Lola VFX
de-aged Downey Jr. in a scene that involved a younger holographic version of himself. Lola VFX's visual effects supervisor,
Trent Claus said, "In this case, we analyzed footage of Mr. Downey at the approximate age that we wanted to target, which was around the time of the film
Less than Zero [when Downey was in his early 20s]." He also noted the difficulty of the scene, due to it being close to 4,000 frames, and the fact that Downey was moving his head from side to side multiple times. Lola also worked on visual effects for the Vision. The Third Floor extensively
previsualized the film including the fight scene at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Gerardo Ramirez, the Previs and Postvis Supervisor for The Third Floor said: We visualized most of the major scenes in the film, some that were more story driven and some that were more action and story driven. The Russos used various methods for planning and they used each department for what it does best. The early edits were a combination of storyboards, previs and stunt performance clips. Stunts would choreograph the hand-to-hand action while the storyboards would be used for character story moments and previs was used for the big action scenes that involved many digital characters. Method Studios, which worked on 440 shots, was responsible for the helicopter sequence in the middle of the film and the climactic fight between Iron Man, Bucky, and Captain America. The original intent for the helicopter sequence was to place the scene next to the Paul-Löbe-Haus, where the
Bundestag meets; however, the location was not allowed to be shown in the film, resulting in Method needing to create a full CGI background. For the climactic fight, one of the challenges for Method was getting the color of Iron Man's suit correct, opting to go with a more "classic Iron Man look versus the really glossy car paint look" that Iron Man had in the previous Avengers films. ILM was primarily responsible for the visual effects during the large-scale fight sequence at the airport, along with creating the digital assets for all of the characters. VFX supervisor Russell Earl, stated that the 20-minute scene grew to be an almost fully digital sequence explaining, "We ultimately ended up replacing 99% of everything that was shot with the actors being lifted from the background. Originally both Spider-Man and Black Panther were planned to be photographed elements but we ended up almost completely replacing them." Luma Pictures, who also worked on
The Winter Soldier, was assigned with completing shots of Bucky's arm and his metal brainwashing chair. They also worked on Bucky's escape from the task force lobby and designed Iron Man's new hybrid
nanotechnology armor, which was an homage to the character's
Bleeding Edge armor from the comics. Their work totaled approximately 200 shots. Spider-Man was a
digital double for all of his appearances, featuring his finalized suit; on-set, Holland wore a temporary Spider-Man suit that featured raised webbing and a different spider emblem, or a
motion capture suit. Design firm Sarofsky once again worked on the film's main-on-end title sequence, having done the same for
The Winter Soldier. The sequence used "muted and mottled, burnt umber and steel blue and cold grey" colors, which were stark contrasts to the sequences for
The Winter Soldier and
The First Avenger (the latter created by Method Design) which were "a minimalist graphic approach, reducing the key players to silhouettes and paring the palette down to three colors" and "vibrant and iconic propaganda art comes to life, enticing the viewer to join the fray", respectively. Creative director Erin Sarofsky noted one of the challenges for
Civil Wars sequence was "to make it feel like a Captain America title sequence and not an Avengers sequence" given the number of characters in the film. == Music ==