Captain America: Civil War will be the third Captain America movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it has such a big ensemble that many view it as being essentially Avengers 2.5. Civil War will feature all of the established Avengers (minus Thor and Hulk), as well as newcomers to the MCU in the forms of superheroes Black Panther and Spider-Man.

The eponymous conflict will be ignited by the Sokovia Accords, which are a response to events that unfolded in Avengers: Age of Ultron and question who is in charge of the Avengers - and therefore who is responsible for the consequences of their battles. This will divide the Marvel universe in two: Team Captain America and Team Iron Man. With Captain America being the leading man in this story, it won’t be easy for him having his former friends and teammates turn into enemies.

Speaking to Empire, Chris Evans opened up about Captain America’s personal conflicts in Civil War, which go beyond having his friends turn their backs at him. Steve Rogers has been presented in the MCU as a man who knows what’s right and wrong, but Civil War will see a Steve Rogers who is no longer sure of this:

“This is one of the first times Steve doesn’t know what side he’s on or what the right answer is. With the first Captain America [movie], I think we can all agree that Nazis are bad. The aliens are no good either; we can all get on board with that notion. This conflict is more mirroring that which we deal with on a daily basis, where it’s just different points of view. There’s no clear right, no clear wrong, and it’s hard for him to understand the right move."

Chris Evans also spoke about Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman), who will be introduced in Civil War prior to his solo movie in 2018. Evans says there will be collateral damage to the action they’ve taken and that “there’s going to be people with different points of view to ours who cause us to regret our actions.” He added that “Black Panther has a certain cachet and class, so to have him come down the way he does, it provides the audience with someone to identify with."

In a separate interview with Cineplex, Evans spoke about the conflict between the two team leaders: Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. To him, this somehow mirrors modern society, stating that:

“It’s something we can all relate to in terms of how we perceive our own society and culture, in terms of what is best for people. You can go right down to Democrat & Republican; everyone has a different opinion of what’s best.”

The Sokovia Accords are a consequence of the chaos that went down in Age of Ultron, pushing the world to create the Accords in order to have some control on what the Avengers do and where they do it. This will bring some major changes to Rogers and Stark’s points of view, as Evans explains.

Captain America: Civil War will kickstart Marvel’s Phase Three, setting the ground for standalone movies like Black Panther and the new take on Spider-Man, as well as for bigger movies - most notably Avengers: Infinity War. It’s time to choose our sides in this battle.

“You have this team of people who are destroying every city they go to, but they’re saving the world. So it’s a matter of, do we monitor these people or do we let them monitor themselves? The beautiful thing with Civil War is that no one’s right and no one’s wrong; it’s just your personal opinion. We’re going to have a nice evolution where you have a guy like Cap, who grew up with structure – he was a soldier and he liked hierarchy, he liked the chain command. Now, all of a sudden, you have a guy who used to love the system not so sure about trusting it. And a guy like Tony Stark, who used to buck the system and dance to the beat of his own drum all of a sudden thinking, maybe we need some order."

Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6, 2016, followed by Doctor Strange – November 4, 2016; Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – May 5, 2017; Spider-Man – July 28, 2017; Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017; Black Panther – February 16, 2018; The Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 – May 4, 2018; Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018; Captain Marvel – March 8, 2019; The Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 – May 3, 2019; Inhumans – July 12, 2019; and as-yet untitled Marvel movies on May 1, July 10 and November 6, 2020.

Sources: Empire, Cineplex [via CBM and CBR]