Russo Bros. reveals Captain America: Civil War was green lit because of BvS

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Russo Bros. reveals Captain America: Civil War was green lit because of Batman vs. Superman!

Rather shocking it isn't? even I didn't believe it but I had to read the statements given by Russo Bros. (Directors of Captain America Winter Soldier, Captain America Civil War and upcoming Avengers Infinity War series) to The Hollywood Reporter, multiple times. In their interview with THR, Russo Bros. said they were interested to deconstruct the Marvel Cinematic Universe to offer something new and different rather the traditional structure used by Marvel Studios for the past 12 movies and they claimed Civil War was a risky move as it is something new for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here's the brief back and forth between the Russo and THR. (Source link provided at the bottom of the article.)


How do you get everyone on board with that kind of story decision when the stakes are so high?

You have to feel that the market is saturated enough that the audience is ready for something different. It's a calculated risk. But again, that's what gets me out of bed. I'm much more interested in deconstructing the genre than doing the traditional execution of it. We've been out of synch for years. Shows like Arrested Development and Community were well received critically and had a devoted fan base, but they weren't commercially successful. The audience's taste finally seems to be lining up with our desire to pursue post-modern storytelling.

What do you think might be driving that change?

Well, it helps that we're working within a very popular genre. But I also think social media has altered viewing habits and tastes. The quality of tentpole movies has gotten very good and very competitive over the last couple years. Because of social media and the discussion that happens there, the audience has gotten a stronger collective sense of taste and you're dead at 6 p.m. on Friday if you didn't make a good movie. And they're starting to champion more radical storytelling.

Deadpool's a great example of that. I mean, holy shite, $750 million worldwide? For our part, when we finished Winter Soldier two years ago and we were thinking about doing the next one, the only thing that seemed interesting to us was to deconstruct the Marvel Universe — because where else can we go at this point? There have been 11 or 12 movies so far, all with a fairly traditional structure. Our pitch to them was: People will tell you they love chocolate ice cream — until you give it to them five days a week. It's time to give them some rainbow sherbet. Kevin [Feige] is a maverick and he's very sensitive to how people are responding to his content. He said he thought we might be right. And after they announced Batman v. Superman, he said, 'you guys are absolutely right.' We needed to do something challenging with the material or we were going to start to lose the audience.

Is this a reactionary move? in a capacity yes it is because from the sounds of it, it seems like Russo Bros. were interested to make movies which are deconstructive in nature but the studio and higher ups involved were little skeptical but the announcement of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice by Warner Bros. Pictures eased up the tension and prompted Kevin Feige to green lit the ideas of Russo Bros.

For the sake of facts, Batman vs Superman was announced on July 21, 2013 during San Diego Comic Con and Captain America Civil War was announced on October 28, 2014 during Marvel Studios Phase 3 Event at El Capitan theater.

Really begs the question if WB didn't announce Batman vs Superman to make something along the lines of Man of Steel 2 or some other solo movie what kind of a Captain America 3 movie we would have got? Captain America: Serpent Society? Let us about your thoughts over this matter and what would have been your pitch for a solo Captain America 3 in the comments below.

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