The Russo-brothers, who are responsible for Captain America: Civil War and directors of Avengers: Infinity War, have announced that the two-part event film will no longer be distinguished from each other with the title card “Part 1” and “Part 2”. Instead, they want to set the films apart and produce it as two distinct films rather than one film that was split into two parts (maybe they learned from The Hunger Games’ mistakes) This begs the question, did Civil War have anything to do with this decision?
Captain America: Civil War sees our favourite Avengers go head to head over whether or not they should register with the government or remain independent vigilantes. You probably know all the details by now. So how does this tie in with the Avengers 3 title change?
Civil War concludes with Cap being a fugitive from the government (especially from Secretary of Defence, Thaddeus Ross), bromancing it up with King T’Challa (Black Panther) and the middle credit scene shows us good old Cap breaking out his buddies from the government-funded Shawshank Redemption for superheroes. Cap definitely sits on the wrong side of the law now (which makes us wonder whether he’ll recruit Daredevil and Punisher as well. Anti-hero bros!).
To make matters worse, Tony still feels conflicted about his former allies, Rhodey is still recovering from Vision’s blast, Team Iron Man lost the allegiance of Black Panther to Cap, Thor and Hulk are MIA and I don’t even want to imagine how much homework Spider-Man has to catch up on. It’s safe to say that The Avengers have never been torn apart quite like this. It’s Loki’s ultimate fantasy.
The problem that Civil War introduces is that Avengers 3 must be the first film to include all our heroes together again in some way, as the only films following Civil War until then are solo outings such as Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming. It is likely that the first part of the third Avengers film would act as a direct sequel to Civil War. This means that The Avengers will be forced to reestablish themselves and set their differences aside to fight a common enemy.
In the face of global destruction, the government will also have to rethink the Accords and will eventually end up begging Cap to return to their aid, no questions asked. The Earth’s military forces will not be enough to stop Thanos, especially if he is going to be in possession of all the Infinity Stones by the time Infinity War rolls out. The only option left will be the promise made by Nick Fury years before: a team of remarkable people with extraordinary abilities to fight the battles that we never could.
The Russo’s have already confirmed that Star-Lord and Captain Marvel will show up in Infinity War. Star-Lord, no doubt, is probably brought into the conflict because of his previous brush with Thanos and his and the Guardians’ cosmic knowledge of the villain will make them a worthy asset. Thanos is basically the biggest McGuffin to ever be introduced into the MCU. He will be the catalyst that brings everyone together, which can’t happen before the conflict of Civil War isn’t resolved first.
It would make sense for Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 to be a kind of pseudo-sequel to Civil War. Nothing makes people forget about that one time a building blew up and that one disagreement with the government more than the arrival of a god-like purple alien who is in love with the embodiment of death. The new titles will likely be something in the line of Avengers 3: Reassemble and Avengers 3.5: We have a Hulk.
