10 Things To Expect From Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3

9. Captain America: Civil War (May 6, 2016)

Often criticized for being the least interesting member of The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier definitively proved that theory wrong by providing Chris Evans' Steve Rogers with a smart, suspenseful and exciting sequel that was a critical and commercial smash hit, grossing over $700m at the box office as well as shaking the foundations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by revealing that Hydra had been infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D for decades, the ramifications of which will no doubt be dealt with in next year's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Given what we know about Captain America 3 so far, it seems that the battle with Ultron will also stretch tensions between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark to breaking point. The news that Robert Downey Jr. (and his $40m paycheck) would appear in the movie only broke a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday's announcement teased yet another potential game-changer for the MCU with the adaptation of the Civil War storyline that saw Captain America and Iron Man head up opposing superhero factions, which will likely set the tone for, and influence, the remainder of Phase 3. Along with revealing that Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther will make his feature debut in the movie, Feige also offered this quote about how the storyline fits into the MCU given that secret identities haven't really been an issue so far;

"It€™s not about the secret identity thing, as much as it is about, overall, who reports to who, and who can agree to oversight committee. Because as of now, in Avengers 2, there is no more security council, there is no SHIELD, obviously. Stark is paying for it, Captain America is running it, and things occur that will make governments begin to question."

Pitting two of the core Avengers against each other potentially sets up one of Phase 3's major plot threads, namely which side both the studio's new and recurring heroes will place their allegiance. Along with the introduction of Black Panther, the likes of Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and even Ant-Man could make small appearances to give the story more scope, not to mention the all-but-confirmed returns of Anthony Mackie's Falcon, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye and Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier. As the first movie of Phase 3, look for Captain America: Civil War to offer a suitably epic kickoff to the next stage of Marvel's ambitious cinematic strategy.