The upcoming sequel Captain America: Civil War has a cast list that’s so stuffed with superheroes, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was an Avengers movie instead of a solo film. However, star Chris Evans wants you to know that Civil War still focuses most on its titular hero.

“Even though there are a lot characters, the focus is on Steve and his struggle,” Evans said in the spring issue of Disney twenty-three, the magazine put out by D23, the official Disney fan club. “Especially his struggle with Tony Stark.“

The film, directed by Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo, breaks the Avengers into two rival camps: those lining up behind Stark’s Iron Man, who wants to cooperate with the government’s regulation on superheroes; and the faction supporting Captain America, who fears the legislation’s ramifications after seeing SHIELD crumble in The Winter Soldier. Iron Man counts Black Widow, War Machine, Black Panther, and Vision on his side, while Cap is joined by the Winter Soldier, Falcon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man.

“It’s exciting to see a guy who’s as optimistic and as selfless as Steve be met with letdown, betrayal, frustration, and selfishness,” said Evans, who is appearing in his fifth film as the super-soldier. “There are events and people in his life that test him — that challenge him and force him to reevaluate who he is and what he wants out of life.”

Though they’ve teamed up in two Avengers films, there has always been a tension between Tony Stark, a cocky billionaire, and Steve Rogers, a patriot born in another era. Kevin Feige, the producer and mastermind of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, says that the big schism between the two heroes has been carefully charted from the early days.

“We’ve seen it coming,” Feige told Disney twenty-three. “The clues were there. When you watch the other films you see how Captain America and Iron Man fight the bad guys together, back-to-back, but they have differences. And there is something that happens in the world that divides them.”

Those differences in personalities will drive the plot even more than the inciting incident, when Congress passes the regulations that demand superheroes answer to a government authority. "The turns in the movie are character-based,” Joe Russo said. “The twists are character-based. Winter Soldier was based more on the twisting plot. This one twists on character.”



Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6. The cover of this spring’s Disney twenty-three is below:

