Did Captain America: Civil War Happen Too Early In The MCU? Marvel Would Argue They Had No Choice!

This is why Captain America: Civil War didn't include as many superheroes as it should have.

Majority of comic fanatics argue that Captain America: Civil War, 2016 should have happened after a lot more heroes had been established in the MCU - but the storyline was a necessary for the studio more than a choice. The film is inspired by a classic Marvel Comic story from 2006 that saw the entire superhero community feuding against each other over a Super Human Registration Act.

Civil War comic has a different sense that sets a revolutionary scene for the modern comic book industry. It was the first Summer Event of the 2000s, and it genuinely transformed the Marvel Universe for years to come. Although it starred Captain America and Iron Man, every single superhero minus the X-men were drawn into the Civil War; from Carol Danvers' (then Ms. Marvel) to Spider-Man, from the Punisher to the Fantastic Four.

Civil War Would Have happened with a whole lot of heroes if happened a bit later. 
SOURCE: Forbes

When the debacle had ended, Captain America was arrested as a criminal - and executed by a sniper before he could stand trial. Tony was placed in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D., while several major heroes were termed as vigilantes from the federals, as the "Secret Avengers". This particular issue was deeply shocking, yet was also truthful to every other comic book each based on a standalone character. In fact, no other Marvel Comic event has matched it in terms of consistency and careful plotting.

The cinematic version of "Civil War", told as part of Captain America 3, took a different course in its narratives. Each party had just a handful of heroes; Iron Man had Vision, Black Widow, War Machine, Spider-Man, and Black Panther, while captain America had Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, Falcon, Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye. 

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Germany’s Airport Battle may have been the highlight of the movie, but it would have been less impressive had the studios shot the climax with a vast number of superheroes brawling it out in Times Square, a setting that comics depicted. The fans of the book repelled, insisting that Marvel should really have waited for a bigger line-up before filming the plot.

Comic spectators tend to undermine the fact that that there's a crucial difference in the nature of the book and the movies. In the comics, no superhero ever really ages or retires, all thanks to sliding timeline; the Fantastic Four were introduced way back in 1961 and are still Marvel's First Family to this day.

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Films, however, are restricted by actors’ age and also their contracts. In addition, in a shared cinematic universe, it's much harder to recast the franchise stars; in the earlier phase, the MCU may have done a seemingly good job with the likes of the Hulk and War Machine back in Phase 1, but there will be a whole lot of complications if they need to do it now, especially when all their stars have already become a household names.

Watch the airport battle between team Cap and team Tony Stark

Marvel Studios’ boss, Kevin Feige mentioned that any adaptation of Civil War simply had to include both Captain America and Iron Man. In reality, that principle brought quite a dispute between the writing members and the Marvel Entertainment’s Ike Perlmutter; the latter being reluctant to sign off on Robert Downey Jr.'s pay-check for the film and proposing using another character for the pro-registration side instead. This was only one of many issues between Feige and Perlmutter, and matters became so bitter that it ultimately led Disney to barge in which later forced a corporate to restructure between the opposing members.

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This, in turn, placed Feige as the sole authority of Marvel Studios. At the same time, the enterprise was also separated out from the rest of Marvel Entertainment. Feige eventually signed up Downey for Captain America: Civil War at a whopping fee of $40 million.

The tenures of both Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. are believed to be coming to an end with Avengers: Endgame - a fact that Evans has been talking about from as early as 2014. Having said that, this plot was quite an obligation to happen during Phase 3. That inevitably meant a small number of casts than the comic book version of Civil War and a less spectacular final battle, but it was better that than losing RDJ and abandoning his arcs altogether.