If you’d been wondering about the official line-up of heroes, villains and others that will be populating the cast of Captain America: Civil War, prepare to be informed. Marvel has released a start-of-shoot notice that includes the expected folk (Iron Man, Black Widow and, oh yes, the slightly important Captain America), but also some that had only been rumoured until now, including The Vision (Paul Bettany), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), James “War Machine” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and, perhaps more surprisingly, Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), who doesn't make his MCU debut until later this year.
And that’s far from all. The film will wrangle together Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson/The Falcon, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow from the second Cap film, who will return as villain Crossbones, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Emily VanCamp as Sharon “Agent 13” Carter, Daniel Brühl as baddie Baron Zemo and Martin Freeman in a still-unconfirmed role.
Plus, making his recently-rumoured return to the MCU for the first time since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, William Hurt will be General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Not mentioned? Spider-Man, who is likely to be cast any day soon. And we can likely expect appearences from Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders' Maria Hill, because what is any Avengerising story without them?
Joe and Anthony Russo are again on directorial duty, bringing everyone together via a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The story finds Chris Evans’ Cap leading his new Avengers line-up (seen at the end of Age Of Ultron as Black Widow, War Machine, Vision, Falcon and Scarlet Witch) in his continued attempts to safeguard the world. But when there’s more collateral damage as part of their mission, political pressure grows to start a system of accountability and some sort of governing body to decide when to call on the team. The new world order puts the Avengers under pressure and cracks begin to form in the team even as a new, nefarious villain threatens us all...
Shooting is taking place now in Atlanta with stops also planned for Germany, Puerto Rico and Iceland. Captain America: Civil War will be out in the UK on April 29, 2016 before heading to the US on May 6. For more **Avengers **talk, and if you’ve yet to listen, check out our **Age Of Ultron **Spoiler Special Podcast below.