‘Captain America: Civil War’: Paul Rudd, William Hurt To Reprise Roles; Full Cast, Synopsis Revealed

Just days after the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel Studios has announced that the production of Captain America: Civil War has offically started. The cast of the sequel continues to grow exponentially. Following the additions of Martin Freeman and Emily VanCamp comes word that Paul Rudd will reprise his role as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man in the film. Not only that, but William Hurt will reprise his role as General Thunderbolt Ross from The Incredible Hulk.

We are also getting our official synopsis of the highly anticipated sequel. More below.

Here is the Ant-Man confirmation,

After his debut in Marvelâ€™s â€œAnt-Manâ€ on July 17, 2015, Paul Rudd (â€œAnt-Man,â€ â€Anchorman 2: The Legend Continuesâ€) will make his first appearance alongside the Avengers as Scott Lang/Ant-Man in â€œCaptain America: Civil War.â€

Rudd joins Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Renner, and Don Cheadle. Unsurprisingly, Spider-Man’s casting has not been mentioned in the press release.

But the return of Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross is interesting. He hasn’t been seen since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, and the only thing that we could think of as to why he is returning is that he is there to make sure that The Avengers are held accountable now that the Hulk has gone missing. We won’t know why he makes a return until more details are revealed.

The film’s synopsis does reveal some minor spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron, and possibly Ant-Man,

â€œCaptain America: Civil Warâ€ picks up where â€œAvengers: Age of Ultronâ€ left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.

We know that Captain America and Black Widow are in charge of training the new Avengers, which, based on the ending of Age of Ultron, consists of Scarlet Witch, The Vision, War Machine, and The Falcon. Based on the press release, it looks like The Avengers recruit Ant-Man to be a part of their team. So we might see something to the effect of the post-credits scene in Iron Man, where someone from either S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers gets wind of Ant-Man’s heroic actions and recruits him to the team. But that is just speculation. But it was the Civil War story arc in the comics that divided the Avengers into a Pro-Registration and Anti-Registration factions. Since there are no secret identities in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is safe to assume that the governing body that helps “determine when to enlist the services of the team” will be the thing that divides Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Tony Stark (Iron Man) to join opposing sides.

So where does Ant-Man fit into all of this? How does Spider-Man fit into all of this? Who is going to be running this governing body that determines when to enlist the help of the Avengers?

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, using a script written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Captain America: Civil War opens in theaters on May 6, 2016.