Captain America: Civil War was one major game-changing event for the MCU. After the first Phase ended with The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier came in and totally flipped the MCU upside down. The whole SHIELD Hydra narrative was not expected to be coming, but it came in with a bang and set up Avengers 2 and Captain America: Civil War.
Civil War actually turned out to be the major development for the MCU, and it had an even bigger impact than The Winter Soldier had on the overall MCU. The entire Phase 3 of the MCU was dependent upon Captain America: Civil War. Remove Civil War from the equation and the entire MCU post-Ant-Man would fall through.
Civil War was a huge movie that was being set up by The Avengers itself. Both the Avengers movies had threads hinting at the upcoming banter between Tony and Steve. The team-up of those two always looks really amazing on the screen but we knew that it was bound to fall through because nothing lasts forever.
Civil War was the biggest Team-up movie of the MCU until 2016, as it took it past Avengers: Age of Ultron bringing in new never seen before characters while making new factions of teams. It was just missing Thor and the Hulk, but that is okay because it was not short of awesomeness in any way.
The plot of the movie was way different than what the comics laid down for us, but the MCU is known for picking up big comic book titles, and then doing their own thing from there on, only referencing big comic book moments and not the entire story thread.
Age of Ultron did the same thing as Civil War, and now Infinity War as they did not give us the same thing which was in the comics. If these movies always ended up giving us the exact same thing from the source material, then there would be no surprising moments left, and we would just be seeing the exact same thing. Where’s the fun in that!
The reason why Civil War was important was that almost all other MCU movies followed the narrative it created. The Sokovia Accords were one of the defining factors of the upcoming movies as every Superhero had to get registered within the accords. This created two teams dividing the Avengers. It separated everyone and left them to unite in the next Avengers movie. But most importantly, it set up 3 of the upcoming solo movies as well.
But if there is one superhero character who underwent a major change in post Civil War is Steve Rogers aka Captain America. He is in man ways lynchpin of MCU Phase 3 movies. Here’s what Joe Russo said:
“His character arc in this trilogy became the perfect metaphor for our times. He starts off as a patriot with a very clear villain in World War II, and then when he works for S.H.I.E.L.D. in this clandestine organization, he has to rebel against the structure and convention because he finds out it’s corrupt.”
Anthony added:
“Cap is no longer the traditionalist and Tony Stark is no longer the free-spirit. And Cap becomes an insurgent by the end of this film.”
Spider-Man was introduced into the Civil War. The first movie that Spidey appeared in within the MCU was Civil War, so it is pretty huge in that way as well. He was handpicked by Tony Stark to fight for his team against Team Cap in the movie. Given the fact that it was his first rodeo, he did an impressive job lifting Cap’s Shield.
Civil War gave time for every hero to shine, and one of those was the Web-Slinger. Beating everyone’s expectations, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man came in shooting web bombs at everyone. And then just 2 months after that, the solo movie came out celebrating the Homecoming of our friendly neighborhood guy. And recently in Avengers Infinity War, he became an Avenger and fought Thanos tooth and nail in his new “Iron Spider” suit manufactured by Stark Industries.
Civil War was also responsible for Black Panther in a major way. King T’Chaka died in Civil War itself, which actually formed the story of Civil War, and began Black Panther’s whole arc. His father came as a representative of Kingdom of Wakanda to attend UN Panel meeting where they finalized Sokovia accords that seek to maintain oversight on the actions of super-powered people like ‘The Avengers’ in the aftermath of the loss of life and property at Wakanda during Age of Ultron.
But Baron Zemo, an intelligence officer of Wakandan agency lost his family and wanted to exact a revenge against the Avengers. So he plotted a scheme and managed to do one thing that nobody ever could – dividing the Avengers and turning them against one another. He made Winter Soldier his personal lapdog and he was ordered to blow up UN Building, as a result, Black Panther lost his father and joined Team Iron Man.
Black Panther was introduced really well in there, and then he came on the big screen in his solo movie creating history. If we remove Civil War, then Spider-Man and Black Panther would not really cease to exist in the way they do. They would have had to find new grounds to stand on, and the backstory of the two would have found it very difficult to plant their feet somewhere else.
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The end of Civil War defined everyone’s future. Clint went back to his family, and his story will be continued in Avengers 4. Scott went back to live with his daughter, and now we will get to see how that goes. The fate of Bucky, Cap, Tony, Rhodey, Vision, Wanda, Natasha, and Sam was defined by Civil War itself. And the events of Civil War also drove the events of Infinity War in many ways.
Do catch up Captain America: Civil War if you haven’t and if you have, watch it another time to get all the easter-eggs and clues to larger MCU narrative. Here is the official synopsis:
“Political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability when the actions of the Avengers lead to collateral damage. The new status quo deeply divides members of the team. Captain America (Chris Evans) believes superheroes should remain free to defend humanity without government interference. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) sharply disagrees and supports oversight. As the debate escalates into an all-out feud, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) must pick a side”.
Avengers Infinity War is currently playing in theatres and going really strong as it has become the highest grossing superhero movie ever. Directed by Russo Brothers and Produced by Kevin Feige & Co. The official movie synopsis reads:
“As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain”.
So, you could say that Civil War was one of the biggest movies of the MCU, and without it, the future of the MCU would not have ceased to exist in the way it does now. The Russos have also said that just like Civil War, Infinity War, there will be a game-changing event at the end of Avengers 4 as well which will alter the MCU forever.
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