'Captain America: Civil War' Cast Member Daniel Bruhl Drops Major Details About Villain Baron Zemo And How He'll Change

With all the hype surrounding Disney’s upcoming 2015 movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” much of the news coming from the Mouse House’s other highly anticipated property, Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” is falling by the wayside. In any case, the actor behind the film’s principal villain is sharing some key details about how his character will differ from his comic book counterpart.

It was previously revealed that “Inglorious Basterds” star Daniel Brühl would join the superhero-packed cast of “Civil War” to introduce the Marvel Comics villain Baron Zemo. According to Marvel’s official bio for the character, he is a German-born scientific genius who, in a battle with Captain America, suffers terrible facial scars that force him to wear a mask at all times. He was originally a foe of Steve Rogers during his World War II days, but he managed to survive throughout the ages. Baron Zemo played a key part in the comic book storyline of the “Civil War” by rounding up villains to capture unregistered heroes.

However, speaking to the U.K.’s Business Insider, the 37-year-old actor revealed the movie will be taking some significant creative liberties with the character and his backstory to adapt the tale for modern-day audiences.

“He does not wear the mask,” the actor confessed, much to the chagrin of comic fans. “It’s loosely connected to this character. But that’s what I like about the Marvel guys: Some of the characters and things they’re dealing with always reference to current events, so my character is from a different area than you would think.”

It seems Brühl is hinting the films may ditch Zemo’s previous backstory in favor of something a little more contemporary. This would make sense since the “Captain America” films already tackled the concept of a vicious Nazi-scientist bad guy in “The First Avenger” with Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull. In addition, the Marvel Cinematic Universe already introduced a character that survived throughout the decades since the 1940s in “The Winter Soldier” with Sebastian Stan’s Barnes. As a result, Zemo’s entire backstory likely has to be changed completely for the films not to repeat themselves. Fortunately, as CinemaBlend notes, modernizing old characters from the comic books is something with which the studio already has had success in heroes such as Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Baron von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) and Vision (Paul Bettany).

Then again, it’s possible Baron Zemo simply won’t adopt his mask until the end of the film, after all, it initially took a melee with Captain America to give him reason for the mask. Perhaps that’s what will happen by the end of “Captain America: Civil War.”