Sign into Twitter anytime in the next couple of weeks and you're likely to see the hashtag #TeamCap or #TeamIronMan trending. Why? Because this is the marketing gimmick for Captain America: Civil War, the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The story, inspired by the 2006-2007 Marvel comic series written by Mark Millar, sees the Avengers superheroes facing off and fighting with each other.
So, whose side are you on?
"Well, Team Cap shot me out of the air," says Don Cheadle with a laugh, referring to the recent trailer for the film that showed his character Colonel James Rhodes, also known as the metal-suited War Machine, plummeting through the sky and bleeding on the ground, fuelling speculation that this is his last Marvel outing. Of the 13 films since 2008's Iron Man sent Marvel towards box-office domination, it's Cheadle's fourth, after Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 and last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron.
“It’s meant a lot,” he says of his participation. “It’s a part of the canon and those movies are a lot of fun. They can be very tedious [to make], but I love the people who I’m working with.”
He compares it with “old home week”, a practice that began in New England, where former residents of a town reunite every decade. “Once every couple of years, I get to see Chris [Evans] and Chris [Hemsworth] and Robert [Downey Jr] and all of the guys.”
Apart from Hemsworth’s Thor and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, this latest adventure reassembles all of the superheroes who’ve been gradually introduced these past eight years. It may be a Captain America adventure by name, but this is no solo outing; when a law is put in place to regulate the activities of the Avengers, it splits the group – with Evans’s Captain America pitted against Robert Downey Jr’s billionaire playboy Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man.
With Cap’s friend Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) also blamed for a terrorist attack, the divisions run deep. Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) side with Captain America, while Iron Man calls upon War Machine, the red-headed android Vision (Paul Bettany) and the lithe Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).
“To see who is choosing which side is fascinating,” says actor Daniel Brühl, new to the franchise.
Famed for playing Austrian racing driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's Rush, the Spanish-born, German-raised Brühl plays the villain Zemo. In other words, he needs his own trending phrase on social media.
#TeamZemo, maybe? “That’s what I said,” he exclaims. “I need some support.”
Either way, he’s a rather more insidious enemy than the masked, purple-coloured Baron Zemo from the original comics, who took on Captain America.
Playing Zemo, Brühl's point of reference was Kevin Spacey's Biblical-inspired serial killer in Se7en.
“Ultimately, in the story, having all these fights and confrontations between so many of them, it would have been redundant and a bit boring to have the villain also try to fight them,” he says. “So it was much more interesting to have this mysterious guy in the background who pulls all these strings.”
While he previously appeared in The Bourne Ultimatum, Brühl admits the size of Civil War left him slack-jawed. "I became a 12-year-old again when I stepped on set because of the hugeness of everything," he says.
Recalling a day on set, he says: “I, being German, am over punctual and stepped into the make-up trailer five minutes before my time. And all the seats were occupied by Scarlett, Chris and Robert. This was one of those moments where I thought: ‘I’m here.’”
Beginning what is being called “Phase 3” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even the veterans seem taken aback by the scale of the film.
"Civil War is a mammoth movie," says Mackie, who joined the series as the fast-flying Falcon for the last Cap adventure, 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
“Pretty much everyone, we’ve all been bumped up to a place where we’re kicking a** and taking names for a long period of time.”
Also finding room to introduce two more superheroes – Tom Holland as Spider-Man and Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther – Civil War is a remarkable feat of narrative juggling. Put that down to Anthony and Joe Russo, the film's sibling co-directors, who began their Marvel adventure with Winter Soldier.
“It definitely helps [having two of them] because they really tag-team stuff,” says Cheadle. “Even the way they direct, they come in and fill in gaps.”
With the Russos now set to make the gigantic Avengers two-part movie Infinity War – due out in 2018 and 2019 respectively – this process of what Cheadle calls "playing make-believe at the highest level" looks set to continue for several years to come.
“They’ve got the mystique of being real easy to do,” says Mackie. “And there’s nothing about those movies where that’s the case. I feel like they’re really, really hard work.”
Captain America: Civil War is in cinemas now
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