Will Captain America: Civil War Be THE Movie Of 2016?

It's hard to believe that any one movie is going to run away with 2016 like Star Wars: The Force Awakens did with 2015, but a lot of movie analysts are predicting that Captain America: Civil War will do just that.  That's pretty bold considering all of the movies that are going to be coming out next year.  I mean, think about it, if it wasn't for Star Wars coming out this year, Jurassic World would have walked away with that honor this year, and who really thought that was going to happen?  Last year, it was Guardians of the Galaxy, another film that nobody thought would be a huge hit (until it came out, that is.)  So what makes Captain America: Civil War the runaway favorite for next year?  In a word...Spider-Man!

Or is that two words?  Oh well, doesn't matter, you get my point.  The inclusion of Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has fans geeking out all over the world.  The problem...or I guess I should say "challenge" for the Russo brothers is to give us a fresh and new Spider-Man, one that separates him from the other movie versions of the character.  The first step for them in doing this was to find the right actor, and he had to embody what they wanted Peter Parker to be like.  So what were they looking for in a nerdy kid from Queens that accidentally gets super powers?  Here's what they had to say:

“This is a completely new version of Spider-Man that’s introduced in Civil War. It was very important to us that we go younger with the character because what we love about Spider-Man is that he’s still a high school student. That’s a part of his vulnerability and it’s what makes him special in the Marvel Universe; he’s very unique. We wanted to play to that aspect of the character. We also wanted to think about ‘Who is Spider-Man today?’ A lot of times when you get interpretations of Spider-Man, they’re very nostalgic to the origins of the character. Sometimes there’s an old-fashioned patina to the tone of who Spider-Man is. We wanted to think about who is Spider-Man today if he’s living in Queens, what’s the texture of his life like, what’s the texture of his relationship with his aunt who lives with him. How can we make the relationship and character very contemporary? That’s our goal with the character.”

Makes sense, right?  Here's the funny thing about this movie.  Even though this is the first appearance of Spider-Man in the MCU, Captain America: Civil War is actually one of the final acts in Marvel's Phase 3, which may or may not see the end of the core group, or the "founding members" if you will, of the Avengers.  With every movie they make, and each one pretty much becoming a blockbuster, the fees for the actors continue to rise, and at some point the studios won't be able to (or will refuse to) pay the actors what they are worth.  So they will introduce us to new and (hopefully) interesting characters to keep the franchise going.  Captain America: Civil War is the first step in introducing us to some of these new characters, as well as bringing the original characters stories to a climax.  In the same interview, here's what the Russo brothers had to say about the third Captain America film, and the next Avengers movies, Infinity War Part 1 & 2:

“The stakes of both Civil War and the Avengers: Infinity War movies are gonna be very high, and there will be a price to pay [for?] a lot of characters. And that’s the whole point of cumulative storytelling. We’re going to go on emotional journeys with these characters. We’ve got a lot invested in the emotion. We have responsibilities to be mindful of how these people feel about the characters and, at the same time, we also have a responsibility to carry through on the storytelling. As filmmakers, we believe in stakes. You can’t have good storytelling without strong stakes. So, there will be a price to pay in Civil War.”

So enjoy the original core group of characters while you can, and hopefully they will give us some new characters that we can get excited about as they continue to expand their MCU.