With his trip to the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit over, Martin Freeman is heading in a different direction by signing up for Captain America: Civil War, according to an announcement by Marvel.
There’s no news though on who he might be playing, although I think it’s safe to say he won’t be a Halfling with hairy feet, or indeed the companion of a super-genius detective. There’s also no hint on whether his deal is just for a single movie, or if this will set up his character for further films, either on the side of good or of evil.
My bet would be the latter, especially with the recent news that Civil War will directly set up the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Another interesting possibility is that he could also appear in Doctor Strange, which would reunite him with his Sherlock co-star, Benedict Cumberbatch.
In the comics, the Civil War storyline centres around the Superhero Registration Act, which demands that those with super-human powers register themselves with and serve the US government. Steve Rogers is unimpressed by this and rebels against it, while Tony Stark (yep Robert Downey Jr. is back) thinks it’s a good idea. As a result the various heroes split into factions that ending up doing battle with one another.
The movie’s due out May 6th, 2016.
It sounds a bit ridiculous that a movie that grossed $700 million was considered a flop, but Sony was banking massively on The Amazing Spider-man 2, and unfortunately despite making more money than most people could ever dream of, it was considered a disappointment.
It’s always busy in the world of Marvel, and with Avengers 2 and Ant Man wrapped and now in post-production, they’re already hard at work on putting the pieces together for Captain America: Civil War. Now another has slotted into place with the company revealing they’ve added Daniel Bruhl (Rush, Inglourious Basterds).
A couple of days ago, Marvel head Kevin Fiege was talking about the fact that DC had moved its planned Batman Vs. Superman onto a release date that was already occupied by a then unknown Marvel movie. Fiege said they weren’t backing off the date, although wouldn’t be drawn on what the film they were making actually was.
It’s still a couple of months until Captain America: The Winter Soldier is being released, but Marvel must be confident it’s going to be a success. It’s not that surprising that Marvel is already thinking about Captain America 3, but it certainly suggests they reckon the second instalment is shaping up to be good as they’ve already attached to directors of Winter Soldier, Joe and Anthony Russo, to helm.