Is Iron Man the villain in Captain America: Civil War?

Despite its title, Captain America: Civil War is going to feature a hefty amount of Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man. The film will be taking plenty of inspiration from Mark Millar's popular Marvel comic 'Civil War', which had Iron Man gradually turn into a villain. However, that's not necessarily the story we'll see on screen.

IGN asked Downey if Iron Man was "the villain by default" in Captain America's film while on the set of Civil War: "It’s difficult for me to think of Tony in those terms, but when you read the comic, it’s like, ‘Man, Tony, you’re blowing it, dude!’"

Co-writer Christopher McFeely added: "We want people walking out of this movie going, ’Tony’s right,’ and the other half of people going, ’Steve’s right. That would be a dream if we got 49-51 split. Because the question is a legitimate one."

"Steve at one point says in the movie, ‘What if these people send us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there's a place we need to go, and they wont send us?'" McFeely continued. "It's an excellent argument. And yet, things have happened that you can't deny."

In a nutshell, this sums up why Civil War has the potential to be Marvel's most interesting and surprising movie yet. Giving both Steve and Tony equally compelling points of view on the issue of superhero oversight - and giving a bunch of other heroic characters understandable reasons for picking either side - has all the making of a great story that will earn its 2 hour 26 minute run time. Here's hoping the Russo's have pulled it off.

Directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, and starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman, Tom Holland, Anthony Mackie, and Sebastian Stan, Captain America: Civil War opens in UK cinemas on April 29, 2016 and May 6, 2016 in the US.

Images: Marvel

Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.