At the end of Marvel's now-iconic Civil War comic book event, Captain America is assassinated. His death sent shockwaves through both through the Marvel universe and the real world as well, as fans and characters alike mourned the loss of one of the greatest heroes to have ever graced the pages of a comic.
But that didn't happen in this year's Captain America: Civil War, which is loosely based on the Civil War comic event. How come? Producer Kevin Feige and directors Anthony and Joe Russo have a compelling answer.
"We talked about lots of potential characters dying at the end of the movie. And we thought that it would undercut what is really the rich tension of the movie, which is this is Kramer vs. Kramer," Anthony Russo says during a Marvel Q&A to promote the release of Captain America: Civil War on DVD and Blu-ray. "It's about a divorce. And if somebody dies, it would create empathy [from the other characters], which would change [things] and allow for repair, and we didn't want to do that."
The goal with the film was to have the superhero "family" shattered prior to the events of the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, which is also to be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. The tragedy of the movie, Anthony Russo says, is that the family falls apart, not that it falls apart and somebody also dies.
Feige also elaborates on why the decision was made to have all the characters survive. During the film's climactic airport battle, Rhodey, wearing his War Machine armor, is shot out of the sky and crash-lands. It's at first unclear if he survives the crash, but it is later revealed that he is alive and mostly well, though he does have to undergo physical therapy and might have retired from acts of superheroism permanently.
"In the comic, in the amazing comic book story, which certainly, the conceit of this movie is based on, some of the specifics, during their big battle, which has a hundred times as many characters, a character died," Feige says. "And we talked about that for a while, and ultimately, what happened to Rhodey (Don Cheadle) in the movie we thought it would be enough of a downer for the tone of the movie."
Though nobody met their end in Captain America: Civil War, it seems like anything could happen in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War. The superheroes of Earth will at long last be facing off against the intergalactic villain Thanos, and if there was ever a time for a major character to die, it would be while doing battle with the Mad Titan.
