Captain America: Civil War Could Have Ended Very Differently

Captain America: Civil War came this close to being a zombie flick.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo knew how they wanted the third Captain America movie to unfold, but it couldn't become Civil War until Robert Downey Jr. (who had already fulfilled his contract with Marvel) agreed to crash the party as Iron Man. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the brothers said they had to brainstorm other endings in case Downey wouldn't come aboard, and it might have revolved around the storied "Madbomb" from the Marvel comics.

"There was a period where we did discuss a third act that revolved around the Madbomb from Cap mythology," Anthony Russo said. "It didn't have anything to do with Civil War, and if we couldn't get Downey—in the very, very early conversations before we nailed him—somebody pitched the idea of a third-act that revolved around the Madbomb, which makes people crazy. It almost like zombifies them–but not literally."

The Russos were intrigued by the possibilities the device would open up. "The notion of the Madbomb would have been Cap having to fight civilians and how he would he handle that," Joe Russo said. "We were always trying to put him into these interesting moral conundrums because of his nature. That would have made a compelling third act because if civilians are the antagonists, how could he stop them without killing them?"

If the Madbomb rings a bell (as Collider notes), you might recall villains in ABC's Agent Carter threatened to use a "mad bomb" in Season 1. It's allegedly a device that causes people to go insane and tear each other apart.

Captain America: Civil War will be available digitally on Sept. 2, followed by the Blu-ray and DVD release on Sept. 13. Check out easter eggs you might have missed.