Before it was CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, Russo Brothers Said it was Almost a Zombie Movie



Joe and Anthony Russo have been taking a bit of a break from developing their next two big Marvel Studios movies, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and AVENGERS 4, to do some press for the upcoming home release of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR on digital HD on September 2 and Blue ray on September 13.

Entertainment Weekly caught up with the brothers, who revealed to the news outlet one of the original ideas for the last Cap movie before it became Civil War. The movie could have been a zombie movie, with Zemo releasing a bomb to 'zombify' civilians Cap would have had to fight. This would have become a reality if actor Robert Downey Jr. didn't re-sign on to reprise his role as Tony Stark and Iron Man.

“There was a period where we did discuss a third act that revolved around the Madbomb from Cap mythology,” Anthony said. “It didn’t have anything to do with Civil War, and if we couldn’t get Downey – in the very, very early conversations before we nailed him – somebody pitched the idea of a third-act that revolved around the Madbomb, which makes people crazy. It almost like zombifies them – but not literally. 
“The charm of the Madbomb is that you turn hordes of people into berserkers. That was the physical challenge that Cap and company would have had to face... Somebody you know has turned into a zombie and now you have to fight them. And there would have been the emotional component of that.”

Joe added to his brother's comment.

“The notion of the Madbomb would have been Cap having to fight civilians and how he would he handle that,” Joe said. “We were always trying to put him into these interesting moral conundrums because of his nature. That would have made a compelling third act because if civilians are the antagonists, how could he stop them without killing them?"

While Cap versus a zombie horde sounds great, having Downey re-sign was obviously the right move as CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR become the studios' fourth $1 billion worldwide blockbuster alongside THE AVENGERS, IRON MAN 3 and AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.