The Russo's talk CAPTAIN AMERICA 3; Bucky's return, Passing the shield, better action and more

Depending on the time of day, which side of bed I got up on and just how many times I’ve made fun of Darryn for the day, my answer to the question of “Which is the best Marvel movie?” varies (FYI: right now it’s back to The Avengers). When it comes to “Which Marvel movie has the best action scenes?” though, there’s only one answer: Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Having just rewatched the movie for the fourth time recently, I still sit in awe at the bone-crunching awesomeness that co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo came up with.

Luckily, they’re sticking around for Captain America 3, so we can definitely expect another round of that and more, as the filmmaking brothers explained to Collider that there’s always a sense of trying to top the action beats you’ve done before.

JOE RUSSO: It’s interesting because we’re movie fans. We watch a lot of movies and I’ve seen a lot of great films over the years and that’s one of the questions I always have in my mind as a film fan, “oh shit! How are they going to top that?” Often times I think the pitfall is that you just do more, that it becomes a volume issue. You did it really well because it was part of the storytelling, but next time out it’s a barrage and I’m not tracking anything and that’s not why it worked in the first place.

We’re being very particular about how we advance it of course, technically and from a scale standpoint. Most importantly from a story standpoint, how does it stay germane to the story? Action is really important, we fetishize it and we grew up on it and we love action sequences, but the sequences that we love, that [Anthony] and I talk about the most, are the ones that have the strongest story impact. So now it’s really just strapping on the thinking caps and thinking of new sequences that are really, really integral to moving the plot forward.

Another thing we can definitely also expect a whole lot more of the next time around, is Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier, especially after Winter Soldier‘s ending strongly hinting at the character getting back his memories, and maybe even redeeming himself.

JOE RUSSO: We’ve called it a two-parter. Certainly it’s a cliffhanger. I know some people didn’t like the fact that he didn’t have a lot of lines and that we didn’t explore more of his personality in that film. That wasn’t the point of that movie. The point of that movie was that, you know, a ghost from Cap’s past comes back and punches him in the face and how does he deal with that issue while he’s also trying to figure out how to save the world. So that character in that movie had the really specific job of basically, you know, being a killing machine and could Cap crack the veneer of that well formed Hydra killing machine? So what’s left to explore obviously is the personality of the character, much the way that [comic book writer Ed Brubaker’s] run did after Winter Soldier regained a semblance of his past. Philosophical questions that we would want to deal with in Cap 3 would be, you know, is he redeemable? Is he the worst assassin we’ve ever seen or is he the longest suffering POW? Where does he live now? Does he ever regain his memories?

ANTHONY RUSSO: He’s a beautifully tragic character.

JOE RUSSO: If he doesn’t regain his memories, can you call him Bucky Barnes or is he somebody new? So it’s a really fascinating character to play with. Very rich. I remember when we met with [Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige] and we found out they were doing a Winter Soldier storyline, I said, ‘You’ve got a Star Wars on your hands because that’s such a rich, familial conflict with a hero and a villain who are basically brothers,’ and such a complex villain. And when I say the hero’s only as good as the villain, Bucky’s so rich and so complex that he makes Cap more interesting.

One major plot point of the Winter Soldier comic book storyline that the movie borrows heavily from, is that eventually Steve Rogers is killed, and Bucky actually becomes the new Captain America. With star Chris Evans currently only having two more movies left on his current contract (which will probably be Captain America 3 and The Avengers 3), do they think it’s time to perhaps start setting up a passing of the shield?

ANTHONY RUSSO: You know, to be honest with you, it’s just – even though there’s sort of a grand plan of things, Kevin Feige also has this awesome attitude of one movie at a time, which I think is very healthy, not to get too far ahead of yourself. And I think even though we can see in the distant horizon some contracts coming to an end and whatnot, and sort of wondering about what happens, I think the truth is, we’re not close enough to it to really be addressing it on a narrative level yet.

JOE RUSSO: When Bucky takes over the mantle at the end of Cap 3 – [turns to Anthony] did I just … [LAUGHS]…  Did I just say that? I meant to say Falcon. Falcon takes over the mantle at the end of Cap 3. It’s a process that, you know, you have to tell the best story that you can now and the contract issue’s not necessarily something that we’re worried all that much about.

ANTHONY RUSSO: All we know is we get Chris Evans for this movie.

Joe is obviously joking about that Falcon line (or is he? DUN DUHN DUHHHNNN!), but one character that will more than likely be stepping up in a big way in the next movie would Frank Grillo’s Brock Rumlow aka the villainous Crossbones – who we last saw being airlifted on a stretcher after he and Falcon played a game of Dodge the Helicarrier Falling Into Your Building and he lost. The Russo’s didn’t want to reveal anything concrete when pressed on Crossbones’ return, but they did tease that it’s going to be significant.

JOE RUSSO: That’s a tough one. I mean, listen, we didn’t – he’s not alive at the end of Winter Solider for no reason, so let’s just say that. But, you know, strict Marvel policy of nondisclosure.

As for Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye not appearing in Winter Soldier, the Russo’s revealed that while several drafts of the script actually included the arrow-slinging hero, scheduling conflicts eventually forced them to leave him on the sidelines. Whether that happens again for Captain America 3 – despite Renner’s recent enthusiasm – is still up for debate.

The duo also dished out several little nuggets on the progress of  the production on Captain America, saying that returning screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely actually turned in their “excellent first draft” of the script last week. They also revealed that there is already a title for the third film (they joked it was CapWolf), and that it will be revealed “hopefully before we start shooting”. According to what Anthony also told Movies.com though, the title reveal would probably happen “in a month or so at the most”.

Check out the full Collider interview over here, where they also discuss just how it is working within Kevin Feige’s plan, and just where and when (April, in case you were wondering) they plan to start shooting next year.

Last Updated: August 29, 2014