[WARNING: Spoilers for Captain America: Civil War ahead.]
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For a solo hero film, Captain America: Civil War had plenty of heroes. The movie’s second act featured a showdown for the ages, with dueling Avengers teams on opposite sides of the law, both attempting to do the right thing. The film pitted Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America (Chris Evans) against quite a few of his colleagues, but there is one former friend that he never got the chance to tussle with: superspy Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).
The two first met in The Avengers (2012), but Captain America: The Winter Solider saw Nat and Cap teaming up to take down their former (corrupt) bosses at S.H.I.E.L.D. It was a standout moment for Black Widow’s character, following Cap’s lead and finally making a conscious decision to take the role of a hero, as opposed to just a spy following orders. The friendship that formed over several films added an extra sting to Natasha siding with Tony and the establishment during the events of Civil War.
It turns out their friendship could have been on even rockier ground, as an exciting animatic shows us the tussle that could have been. Darrin Denlinger, a storyboard artist on Civil War, shared some clips of his work, and it’s definitely interesting seeing how some of these scenes could have gone down. In this version, the Cap/Nat fight takes place right after Cap tosses Ant-Man’s (Paul Rudd) “water truck.”
Writers Christopher Markus and Steven McFeely previously noted that this Cap/Black Widow fight was cut due to time constraints. But, one can’t help but wonder, considering the way the film ended up, if in the end it seemed out of character for Widow to physically fight Cap. Also of note, in this version of the scene, Ant-Man uses one of his ant sidekicks for transportation, which were conspicuously absent in the final cut of the film.
Subsequent posts feature a brutal alternate take on The Winter Soldier’s (Sebastian Stan) escape from his apartment, and another of the scene where he is brought into custody. This, coincidentally, features Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) much earlier in the film than he ended up appearing.
Certainly, it can be mind-boggling how much a film can change over the course of a production due to time constraints, tonal adjustments, budgeting, etc. even after so much effort is put into high quality proof-of-concepts like Captain America: Civil War, as well as other big-budget comic book films. Still, Marvel’s Phase 3 launchpad didn’t seem to suffer for these scenes being cut, since Civil War received plenty of praise from critics and fans alike.
What do you think, readers? Is there anything from these animatics that definitely should have made the final cut? Sound off in the comments below!
Captain America: Civil War is in theaters now. Doctor Strange opens November 4, 2016; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017; Spider-Man: Homecoming – July 7, 2017; Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017; Black Panther – February 16, 2018; Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 – May 4, 2018; Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018; Captain Marvel– March 8, 2019; Avengers: Infinity War Part 2– May 3, 2019; and as-yet untitled Marvel movies on July 12, 2019, and on May 1, July 10, and November 6 in 2020.
Source: Bleeding Cool
