Why [Spoiler] Wasn’t Killed Off In The End Of ‘Captain America: Civil War’

WARNING: This story contains major spoilers about “Captain America: Civil War.” Do not continue reading unless you watched the film.

When “Captain America: Civil War” was released Friday, many fans walked into theaters expecting to see some of the heroes killed as they battled one another. By the time the dust settled, however, everybody had survived, and even Captain America lived on despite his fate in the comic books that served as the production’s source material.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told CinemaBlend it was not planned to have Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) die in the latest film. However, he neither confirmed nor denied that Captain America would be killed at some point in the movies to come.

“If you actually look at it, it’s not a part of the ‘Civil War’ story. It’s the next one. I’m not saying we’ll kill him in the next one, but we just never looked at it as key to the conflict. And we wanted that to be the focus of the movie, and the focus of the ending is maintaining that conflict,” Feige dished.

Screenwriter Stephen McFeely added they didn’t want make it appear as if Captain America was dead only to come back to life for “Avengers: Infinity War,” whose first part is planned for release in 2018. McFeely said fans “hate” when filmmakers bring back dead characters, so their goal was to separate the Avengers just before the arrival of Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Instead of being killed, Rogers was in hiding when “Captain America: Civil War” came to a close in the wake of his decision to not sign the Sokovia Accords. He also helped break out his fellow heroes who were imprisoned by Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt). Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) was frozen until they find a way to get Hydra out of his head. His body was being hidden in Wakanda with Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman).

In the comic book version, Captain America is killed shortly after the events of “Civil War”: Acting as a sniper, Crossbones first shoots him, and Sharon Carter then finishes him off while she’s brainwashed. When fans saw that both Crossbones (Frank Grillo) and Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) would appear in the film, many figured the movie would follow the same storyline. Instead, its producers chose to take a different path and divide the heroes without any fatalities.