20 Insane MCU Moments Marvel Didn't Show

8. Captain: America Civil War Had A Back-Up Script If Robert Downey Jr Was Unavailable

Doctor Strange Iron Man Avengers: Infinity War
Marvel Studios

In Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man teams up with Spider-Man and the Avengers to take down Cap and his teammates. Despite being regarded as one of the strongest films in the MCU, it's a miracle Civil War exists. After Avengers: Age of Ultron, Robert Downey Jr's contract with Marvel expired and he strongly considered quitting the franchise.

At the same time, Sony had the sole rights to Spider-Man, so only they could decide if the wallcrawler appeared in this film. The company kept changing their mind, which meant the script had to be rewritten over and over to accommodate this. Kevin Feige found the whole ordeal so stressful, he nearly quit.

But if Spider-Man didn't appear in the film, the story would be basically the same, right? Not necessarily. After Downey Jr agreed to return, Marvel CEO, Ike Perlmutter, passionately fought against his inclusion in the movie. Things got so bad, Kevin Feige had a spare script ready for Captain America 3 if the Civil War story fell through.

The story would have involved Zemo dropping a poisonous gas bomb on America, causing citizens (including the Avengers) to transmogrify into mindless savages.

Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows