Captain America Civil War: What Role Will The Winter Soldier Play?
‘Captain America: Civil War’ is the highly-anticipated adaptation of one of Marvel’s most famous comic book storylines and the biggest superhero movie of the year.
It’s just a couple of months away from release, but we’ve seen relatively little of the Russo Brothers’ second Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) outing as directors. Just one trailer and a short TV spot have been released, so there are more questions than answers regarding 'Civil War’, and one of the biggest relates to the role of Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier.
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The Winter Soldier’s role in proceedings is the most immediate deviation from the source material, so we thought we’d explain why he’s been included and why both Captain America and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) are so interested in him.
As we discovered in 2013’s 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ the titular assassin is in fact Cap’s childhood friend Bucky Barnes. At the end of the film, The Winter Soldier is freed from Hydra’s brainwashing control and (in a post-credits sequence) begins to piece together his history and relation to Cap.
'Civil War’s first trailer ends with Cap explaining to Iron Man: “He’s my friend,” before Stark replies: “So was I.” The friendships being fought for and torn apart, the betrayal Stark feels - it encapsulates the pair’s rift perfectly, and lends emotional resonance to what would otherwise be a tiff over politics.
That trailer infers that Bucky hasn’t fully recovered, but is beginning to. He’s a wanted man, but Cap understands he was brainwashed into committing his crimes - and isn’t to blame. The authorities, and Iron Man, don’t particularly care for this detail.
Both in the comic and the film, Cap and Iron Man’s clash arises because of legislation being brought in to require all superheroes to register with the government and be held accountable for their (usually destructive) actions. Tony Stark agrees with the idea, likely out of guilt for the destruction he caused by creating Ultron in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron’, but Cap disagrees, because he believes heroes should operate separately from governments and not have their privacy invaded.
Arguing about political matters would probably work out fine for the movie, but Bucky’s inclusion ties things together nicely in another way - his ties to Stark. In ‘The Winter Soldier’ it is heavily teased that the car crash that killed Stark’s parents was not an accident, but made to look like one by The Winter Soldier.
If he killed Stark’s parents and Tony Stark discovers this - it’ll make the feud between him and Cap that much more personal. Bucky being central to the plot makes the clash of ideologies much more emotionally charged, which suits a summer blockbuster. It perfectly fits into the classic ‘Civil War’ story.
‘Captain America: Civil War’ will be released in the UK on 29 April.
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Picture Credits: Marvel Studios.
