It’s an impressive feat for any film to crack a $90 million opening weekend at the box office, but Marvel Studios is 2 for 2 this year in that regard. Guardians of the Galaxy just opened to a stellar $94.3 million this past weekend, and earlier this year Captain America: The Winter Soldier launched to $95 million, which currently stands as the second highest opening of the year. Marvel has already confirmed sequels for both films, and the first out of the gate will be Captain America 3 on May 6, 2016. The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo are returning to helm the third standalone Cap film, and they’re currently hard at work developing the pic.
With The Winter Soldier hitting Blu-ray next month, the Russo brothers recently spoke a bit about Captain America 3, revealing that it picks up “a couple years” after the events of the second film and will continue exploring Steve’s relationship with his resurrected pal Bucky. Additionally, the Russo brothers reiterated that they will be returning to television to direct a few episodes of Marvel’s upcoming new series Marvel’s Agent Carter. More after the jump.
Speaking with Yahoo! Movies, the Russo brothers were tight-lipped with regards to specific Captain America 3 plot points, but they did reveal some of the larger themes that will be explored:
Although the heart of the movie will be Steve Rogers’ complicated relationship with his childhood friend Bucky Barnes, the themes of politics and power will still be in play. “The character was invented for an explicitly political purpose. So it’s hard to get away from that nature,” Anthony tells Yahoo. It’s also important to the directors that Captain America doesn’t become another disillusioned antihero. As Joe sees it, “his morality is part of his superpower.”
The brothers also promise that they’re “bringing some new elements to the table that will give us a twist on Winter Soldier”, but didn't really elaborate on that front. Could we see Bucky or another character pick up the Captain America mantle? As the expiration dates of Marvel’s contracts with its principal actors loom closer, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the studio start threading in the possibility for other characters to tackle the monikers of “Iron Man”, “Captain America”, etc.
But before production begins on Captain America 3, the Russo brothers will be returning to their roots. Many were surprised that the duo was hired to helm the Captain America sequel since the bulk of their credits involved directing television, including many episodes of Arrested Development and Community. At Comic-Con it was revealed that the duo would be helming a few episodes of Agent Carter, and they confirm today that they will be directing “several episodes” of the new Marvel TV series Marvel’s Agent Carter, which is a 1940s-set spinoff focusing on Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter character from the first Captain America film.
Given that they were tasked with exposing the HYDRA conspiracy to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, might the Russo brothers also be portraying the early days of HYDRA’s S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltration? We’ll find out soon enough when Marvel’s Agent Carter premieres on ABC in January 2015.