Captain America 3 Original Plot Was So Off the Mark, Feige Rejected It Immediately
The third installment in the Captain America franchise was originally based on a completely different Marvel storyline, but Kevin Feige turned it down for not being "big enough."
Captain America: Civil War has become one of the biggest and most successful Marvel projects. The movie revolves around a conflict between major MCU superheroes over a superhero registration act. It basically puts Captain America against Iron Man at the same time introducing such important superheroes as Black Panther and Spider-Man.
Six years later, it is hard to believe that if Kevin Feige hadn't stepped in, the story would only feature a handful of superheroes.
Nate Moore, a VP of Production & Development at Marvel Studios, told the host of The Town podcast that originally the creators of Captain America 3 had an eye on the Madbomb Saga to build the story around.
In Marvel Comics, the Madbomb was a device that when activated caused everyone surrounding it to go nuts and attack each other. Moore said that the team wanted to focus on Captain America and Bucky reuniting after Winter Soldier, and had chosen Zemo as a perfect villain for a Cap storyline. But their plans were ruined by Marvel Studios President's idea to do Civil War.
Feige reportedly wanted something "bigger" than the Madbomb for the third Captain America movie, and Civil War seemed a good fit. Though Moore was skeptical about adapting a crossover storyline involving so many characters, some of which were not even introduced in the MCU yet, Feige insisted. And eventually, the writers managed to cover the Bucky storyline, use Zemo as a villain, and insert a huge conflict in the center of the movie.
This is not the first time Civil War creators talk about the original concept based on the Madbomb. The Russo Brothers told Entertainment Weekly that if the movie had gone the Madbomb route, it would focus on a moral issue of Captain America having to fight common people and probably even his allies zombified by the device.
Cap's very nature suggests hard moral choices as part of his storyline. How would he stop angry civilians without killing them?
Though some fans feel that the Civil War storyline was used way too early in the MCU development, the majority are grateful to Feige for pulling off Civil War which resulted in epic Endgame and following Phase 4. As for the Madbomb Saga, it still can be used in future Captain America movies, fans have no objections to that.