10 Movie Characters Everyone Thought Were Secret Villains

Mid-way through Captain America: Civil War, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) reveals that villain Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) wants to reach the Siberian HYDRA base in order to unleash the other participants in the Winter Soldier program, who are being held there in cryogenic storage.

As Captain America (Chris Evans), Bucky, and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) chase Zemo to the Siberian facility, it's heavily implied that Zemo will thaw out the five Winter Soldiers there and have them do battle with the heroes.

But ultimately this is just a brilliantly cheeky misdirect - once Cap, Bucky, and Iron Man arrive at the facility, they discover that Zemo has instead shot all of the Winter Soldiers dead.

As it turns out, Zemo had no interest in using them to do his bidding at all, but simply used the threat of harnessing the soldiers to lure the heroes there. where he hatches his plan to turn Cap and Iron Man against one another.

Considering that Zemo remains one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's finest villains to date, it's a relief that he got center stage here and the big third act fight was instead between the fractured heroes.