The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Joe Russo, one of the Captain America: Civil War directors, and he revealed that Warner Bros. announcing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice helped Marvel greenlight their own superhero vs. superhero movie. If you didn’t know, Captain America: Civil War pits Team Captain America vs. Team Iron Man. Here’s how it all went down…

“Civil War really deconstructs the superhero genre and people seem to be responding to that. It was a very risky movie for us. It has a non-traditional three-act structure for a superhero film,” Russo said.

“Our pitch to them was: People will tell you they love chocolate ice cream — until you give it to them five days a week. It’s time to give them some rainbow sherbet. Kevin [Feige] is a maverick and he’s very sensitive to how people are responding to his content. He said he thought we might be right. And after they announced Batman v. Superman, he said, ‘you guys are absolutely right.’ We needed to do something challenging with the material or we were going to start to lose the audience.”

It sounds like once Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige saw that Warner Bros. was making a Batman vs. Superman movie, he felt more comfortable having his own heroes fight each other. It just goes to prove that competition really is a good thing!

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter