1. General Thadeus Ross Is All About The Mind-Games
General Thadeus Ross will return to the fold, once again played by William Hurt. Hurt originally held the role in 2008's The Incredible Hulk, where he mostly just did a lot of shouting. In Civil War it sounds like the actor's going to have to follow in Robert Redford's shoes (so calculating in The Winter Soldier) and wage his war using mind-games. That's always better than outright carnage. Ross gets narration duties for a portion of the footage, discussing with Cap the difference between heroes and vigilantes. He slyly plays to Cap's boy-scout mentality by confessing the world owes him a huge debt, but than proceeds to insist that superheroes now cultivate an aura of fear. I expect that's the same paranoia Ross will happily manipulate as the events of Civil War progress, and if he knows how to play Cap, the more egotistical and easily-manipulated Tony Stark should be a piece of cake. Either way, it's clear that Ross' carefully chosen words will be central motivating factors to the film's trajectory. Hurt's always a dependably fulsome presence, and it'll certainly be nice to feel a stronger sense of matched DNA between the on-going Marvel tradition and 2008's oft-neglected The Incredible Hulk. It's not a great film by any means, but seeing the strands tie together is always satisfying. Having Hurt return is like welcoming back an old friend. Captain America: Civil War opens in UK Cinemas on the 29th April 2016. It's US bow follows a week later on 6th May.
