CAPTAIN AMERICA 3 Directors Say the WINTER SOLDIER Story Arc Was Planned as a "Two-Parter"



Captain America: The Winter Soldier ends with a cliffhanger and sees the movie's heroes readying their pursuit after the Winter Soldier. The ending is quite similar to the cliffhanger ending of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and director Anthony and Joe Russo actually revealed they used a Star Wars comparison when they found out about the story line Marvel Studios was planning for the sequel.


"I remember when we met with Kevin," Joe said in an interview with Collider.com, "and we found out they were doing a Winter Solider storyline, I said, ‘You’ve got a Star Wars on your hands because that’s such a rich, familial conflict with a hero and a villain who are basically brothers,’ and such a complex villain. And when I say the hero’s only as good as the villain, Bucky’s so rich and so complex that he makes Cap more interesting."

The director also revealed how they planned out the Winter Soldier's own story as a two-part arc.

"We’ve called it a two-parter. Certainly it’s a cliffhanger. I know some people didn’t like the fact that he didn’t have a lot of lines and that we didn’t explore more of his personality in that film. That wasn’t the point of that movie. The point of that movie was that, you know, a ghost from Cap’s past comes back and punches him in the face and how does he deal with that issue while he’s also trying to figure out how to save the world. 
"So that character in that movie had the really specific job of basically, you know, being a killing machine and could Cap crack the veneer of that well formed Hydra killing machine? So what’s left to explore obviously is the personality of the character, much the way that Brubaker’s run did after Winter Solider regained a semblance of his past. Philosophical questions that we would want to deal with in Cap 2 would be, you know, is he redeemable? Is he the worst assassin we’ve ever seen or is he the longest suffering P.O.W.? Where does he live now? Does he ever regain his memories? 
"If he doesn’t regain his memories, can you call him Bucky Barnes or is he somebody new? So it’s a really fascinating character to play with."

At the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Rogers and Falcon start their pursuit of the Winter Soldier so Cap can help his old friend reclaim his memories and their friendship. The events of Avengers: Age of Ultron will interrupt their hunt and there's a chance Cap could recruit a few other heroes to help him and Falcon in Cap 3. The Russos have already hinted at appearances that will blow fans' minds in the threequel.

Captain America 3 releases in theaters on May 6, 2016 and starts filming in Atlanta in spring 2015.