'Captain America: Civil War': 9 exclusive EW looks at the superhero showdown

In a scene from the trailer, Cap uses his supersoldier strength to grab on to the edge of a building and prevent a helicopter from escaping. (We don’t know who’s inside it, or why he can’t let it leave.) The governments of the world are up in arms over self-appointed superheroes causing havoc, and crashing this helicopter is exactly the kind of thing that makes Cap an outlaw. “We’ve saved the world but we also caused so much damage and cost lives and there are some people who think the collateral damage isn’t worth it,” Evans says.

This scene is set an an international intelligence operations center, with Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), in the background with Anthony Mackie’s Falcon and Chris Evans’ Captain America, and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) on opposite sides of the glass. Carter, whose relation to his World War II flame Peggy Carter hasn’t been established yet in the films, became a love interest for Cap in the comics. “I think he’s looking,” Evan says. “You know, I think he’s certainly open to it. Sharon is obviously relevant, but … we don’t have to tie it up in one movie. So they have time.”

Here’s a full look at Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther. (And here’s a detailed report on what to expect from the first black comic book hero’s arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.) His real name is T’Challa, and he’s the brilliant warrior-prince from a fictional African nation where vibranium (the main ingredient in Cap’s sheild) is plentiful. “I think there’s perhaps a bit of a maverick there, and then there’s also a need to live up to traditions and his father’s legacy. And not even his father’s legacy, but the entire nation of Wakanda,” Boseman says.

There’s a lot of pent-up animosity between Cap and Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, but it all explodes out into the open over Cap’s decision to protect his old friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who has apparently been deprogrammed as the assassin The Winter Soldier. “They do respect each other but they’re just very different men,” Evans says of Cap and Iron Man. “You do have those moments of connection, like at the end of Age of Ultron when I say, ‘I will miss you, Tony.’ There is a love and respect there … and that’s what makes this so tragic.”

Cap’s in trouble. Tony Stark is unhappy with the way Steve Rogers has been running the new Avengers – which he’s underwriting – and wants Cap to agree to operate under the new Sokovia Accords that dictate the activities of those with “enhanced abilities.” “He’s really trying everything from great earnestness to outright manipulation, emotional manipulation to try to get Cap to just make this, to swing the vote.”

It’s a Captain America movie, not an Iron Man movie – but Tony Stark looms large throughout this third “solo” installment in the Steve Rogers story. “It just hit me yesterday, now that we’re six weeks in, that they were actually over his shoulder coming out of the elevator, not over my shoulder watching him come out of the elevator,” Downey says during EW’s set visit. “I was like, oh, that’s right, it’s his point of view.” Evans says he’ll happily return the favor if there’s ever an Iron Man 4: “I’d be happy to be in an Iron Man movie. We’ve been in so many movies together, the titles are almost, at this point, inconsequential. We all win!”

“I love our scenes together because I do think they feel a sense of responsibility. I think they’re both very selfless people,” Evans says of Captain America and Black Panther. “They want the right thing, no one’s irrational, no one has an inflated ego.” (That’s got to be a dig at Iron Man, by the way.) “They’re family-first people,” Evans says. “I think outside of the suits we’d be friends, Steve and T’Challa.” 

Civil War will answer this question about Cap’s old friend, turned foe, turned … something else: “What have we gotten as a result of Bucky and the Winter Soldier,” says actor Sebastian Stan, who plays the robotic-armed assassin. “Here’s the guy when you merge the two. This is what came out.  You know, he’s not entirely… to me it’s never really going to be Bucky Barnes again.” (More on that Friday at EW.com.)

Black Panther was first introduced in Fantastic Four #52 in July 1966, at a time when black characters in general were few and far between in comic books – and ones treated with the awe and admiration reserved for white heroes were even more rare. Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, may have come first in the movie timeline, but Panther cleared the way for that character in print – along with other black superheroes like Luke Cage, Storm, Misty Knight, and more recently, Miles Morales, who took on the mantle of Spider-Man in Marvel’s “Ultimate Universe.”

To continue reading more on Captain America: Civil War, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands Friday, or buy it here.