‘Captain America 3’ Almost Turned Into A Zombie Movie
Robert Downey Jr.landed a huge paycheck forCaptain America: Civil War. The actor, whose contract had expired before theCaptain Americasequel, was reportedly paid $40 million upfront and a significant back end fee. This enormous payday, however, almost didn’t happen, so directorsAnthonyandJoeRussoand all involved had to consider other stories to tell. What was another story that was a viable option for the filmmakers? Cap taking on zombies or, as Joe puts it, infected people that are similar to zombies.
Below, learn more about an earlyCaptain America 3zombie storyline.
Securing Robert Downey Jr. forCaptain America: Civil Warwasn’t easy, as both sides, according toVariety’s initial coverage of the story, had some disagreements. In the end, Marvel Studios PresidentKevin Feigehelped close the deal, but the Russo Brothers and screenwritersChristopher MarkusandStephen McFeelyimagined other stories forCaptain America 3, just in case a deal wasn’t sealed.
In an interview withEntertainment Weekly, Joe Russo said makingCivil Warwasn’t always a sure thing:
It was not a given that we were even going to doCivil Warwhen we were talking about the next movie afterWinter Soldier. So there was a period of time when we explored possibilities for Cap stories that did not include it. We spent a few weeks doing that, althoughCivil Warcame up fairly early in the process and once that happened it took over our brains and we ran hard at it.
If the directors couldn’t make Civil War, thenJack Kirby’s 1976 “Madbomb” story would’ve been a key piece of inspiration. Anthony Russo and his brother considered the storyline forCaptain America 3’s third act:
There was a period where we did discuss a third act that revolved around the Madbomb from Cap mythology. It didn’t have anything to do with Civil War, and if we couldn’t get Downey – in the very, very early conversations before we nailed him – somebody pitched the idea of a third-act that revolved around the Madbomb, which makes people crazy. It almost like zombifies them – but not literally.
If they continued down this path, it would’ve been Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) who set off the bomb. Cap fighting “zombies” doesn’t sound as dramatic as his fight with Iron Man, but Joe Russo said a zombie battle still would’ve given the boy scout both an internal and physical struggle:
The notion of the Madbomb would have been Cap having to fight civilians and how he would he handle that. We were always trying to put him into these interesting moral conundrums because of his nature. That would have made a compelling third act because if civilians are the antagonists, how could he stop them without killing them.
Anthony Russo added somebody Captain America knew would’ve been infected by the Madbomb, forcing him to combat a friend, which probably would’ve made that film’s stakes more personal. Who that character might’ve been, the directors either didn’t reveal or never had time to figure out, since they quickly jumped at the opportunity to tell the famousCivil Warstory once a deal with Robert Downey Jr. was reached.
Captain America: Civil Waris available on DVD and Blu-Ray onSeptember 13th.
