Written by Victor Sanchez, November 25, 2015, at 7:12 p.m.
Marvel Studios started production on Captain America: Civil War around May of this year.
Since then, the internet has been abuzz with speculation to try to better understand what we are in for. Last night, the Captain America: Civil War trailer premiered on Jimmy Kimmel Live, giving us a good look at what’s in store for 2016’s sure-to-be blockbuster.
Warning: Spoilers for the Civil War comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe ahead.
Captain America: Civil War is based on a Marvel comic book universe major event, written by Mark Millar. In the Marvel universe, several disastrous acts caused by super heroes/villains lead to the US government to implementing a “Superhuman Registration Act,” which legally requires all individuals with extraordinary abilities to register themselves with the government so that they can be easily monitored, for the sake of national security. This, of course, causes the super-powered community to become divided between people for and against the legislation. 
The primary figurehead for the pro- registration group is Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, who believes that people with super powers should be properly trained and organized so that they can be less of a danger to themselves and others. Captain America leads those in opposition of the act, believing it jeopardizes their personal freedoms.
This causes a series of clashes between the two characters, ultimately leading to Captain America being assassinated by the super villain Crossbones. Crossbones is confirmed to be in the film, played by Frank Grillo.
In the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), the movies follow only roughly in the footsteps of their comic-book counterparts. Some of the movies will be several stories mashed together or entirely new concepts and scenes, so it’s difficult to know which route the films will take compared to the Civil War comics. However, with the trailer, we can begin to piece together how this version of Civil War could play out.
The Civil War comics are followed soon after by an invasion of Earth by the Skrull, a species of alien shape-shifters looking to take advantage of Earth now that many of its heroes have been wounded or killed. The Skrull themselves are in a curious legal situation between Marvel Studios (Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, etc.) and 20th Century Fox Studios (Fantastic 4, X-Men, Deadpool). Unless Marvel regains full control, it is unlikely we will see them as a result of Captain America: Civil War.
The trailer begins with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) confronting Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the former Winter Soldier. Over the course of the last few films, Captain America has been pursuing his brainwashed friend, Bucky, and it seems that, in this film, he will regain his memories and rejoin his old friend.
In this version of Civil War, the “Superhuman Registration Act” seems to have had its name changed to “The Sokovia Accord.” This is a reference to the destruction of the small nation of Sokovia in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
On the cover of “The Sokovia Accord” it states, “Framework for the registration and deployment of enhanced individuals.” This all but confirms it as the notorious legislation. After this is shown, it is revealed to us that Captain America will at some point be pursued by law enforcement and Iron Man (Robert Downey JR.) himself.
It’s not surprising then that Iron Man and Captain America are placed in the same ideological positions as in the comics, with the two clearly being on opposite sides of the issue and enemies in combat scenes featured in the trailer.
Even though both men show a great deal of reluctance to fight each other based on their past friendship, the two figures show a great deal of animosity towards each other, culminating in a pretty savage beat-down of Iron Man by Captain America and Bucky. This scene is pretty brutal for a trailer, leading fans to question how dark will this film be.
There is a pretty grim shot of War Machine (Don Cheadle) seemingly wounded or killed. This would be an interesting move for Marvel, as they have been reluctant to kill off recurring characters, making the claim that Age of Ultron would feature dark moments, but all we saw was the death of a character introduced in that movie.
The act of killing a recurring character like war machine would really up the stakes for Iron Man to put a stop to his rival. A few years back, both Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. made vague statements about not continuing to portray their characters. However, these statements have since been taken back by the actors themselves and Marvel. This really muddies any speculation on character death for the film.
Most surprisingly, however, is the addition of franchise newcomer Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), the African king turned super hero. Black Panther will be seeing his own solo film in 2018. In the mean time, he is seemingly on the side of Iron Man and pro-registration, as he is seen fighting Bucky and running from Captain America.
There has been a lot of back and forth discussion about the choice of director for the upcoming film so it will be interesting to see how the Black Panther solo film ties in with Civil War and the rest of the franchise.
This trailor was a huge information dump for fans. Captain America: Civil War will host a massive cast of characters, and with Black Panther attempt to tie into the upcoming Phase 3 of the MCU. Let’s just hope that directors Anthony and Joe Russo are up to the challenge of managing such an ambitious project.