Early 'Captain America: Civil War' scripts featured Wasp, Hank Pym
For those who haven't yet seen Captain America: Civil War, this is your one and only spoiler alert.
What would the big "Everyone versus Everyone" brawl in Captain America: Civil War have looked like if Hank Pym had waded into the fray?
Writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus considered the possibility -- and quickly dismissed it -- in a very early draft of the film.
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"There was one not very good draft where Hank Pym shows up," Markus told Mashable.
McFeely let out a huge guffaw at the mention of the Pym draft. Clearly, his arrival brought some manner of trainwreck potential to the movie.
"I forgot about that," he said. "We won't speculate on what Hank Pym did, but he wasn't as helpful as he needed to be."
"We won't speculate on what Hank Pym did, but he wasn't as helpful as he needed to be."
Also in the running for the Civil War brouhaha: Wasp. Not the original, presumed dead Janet Van Dyne; it was her daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), who took up her mother's mantle during Ant-Man's post-credits scene.
"In the case of Wasp, [we left her out because] it was really kind of ruining a good story point for her in her own movie," McFeely said.
The writers wanted to be careful about surfacing Wasp in a story where they couldn't take the time to properly introduce her.
"It was saying her shootout moment isn't enough to be presented dramatically, which is just not true," Markus said.
Bear in mind, this was all long before Spider-Man entered the picture in a serious way.
"Those drafts existed in a world where they hadn't shot a frame of Ant-Man," McFeely explained. "They existed in a world where Edgar Wright is still directing that movie." Wright left Ant-Man in May 2014, more than a year before the movie's release.
That's not to say Spider-Man was a late addition. The 2015 deal Marvel struck with Sony to bring Spidey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the end of a long process, and you can thank the Civil War writers for that.
"He's been in and out," McFeely said of the wall-crawler's presence in the script. "We chased it early and said it would be great to bring him in for a lot of reasons."
Fundamentally, Markus and McFeely wanted more fists in the mix for Civil War's big showdown. But Spider-Man specifically also brings a fresh perspective that few other Marvel Cinematic Universe characters could.
"One of the worries we always had in the script was how [to] avoid having the same argument seven times and just bumming people out," McFeely said. The solution, as he put it, was to bring in characters that had a different agenda. Individuals with fewer personal ties to Iron Man or Captain America.
"Spider-Man comes in in a very specific way. Ant-Man and Black Panther too; they all have different points of view," McFeely added. "Particularly Ant-Man and Spider-Man, it's much lighter. It's no accident that those guys are the funniest guys in the movie. They're the least invested."
The lighter moments during that fight are also important, Markus said, for keeping the movie anchored. It's a summer blockbuster, not a heavy drama.
"[Comedy] allows us to leaven the heaviness at a time when it might be getting a little too dour, a little too self-serious," Markus added. "You never want to forget that you're making a superhero movie, despite the fact that we're dealing with -- and taking seriously -- the issues.
"Don't lose the fun," he said.
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Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
