Captain America Screenwriters Talk Sequel & Howling Commandos Spin-Off

 While talking with IFC (via ComicBookMovie) screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely talked about Captain America 2 confirming they've completed an outline for the the sequel. Along with seemingly colaberating with Joss Whedon to figure out where Cap's character should be in Captain America 2. Since a few things that likely were planned for the second film are now being included into The Avengers.

McFeely: "We needed to read Joss' 'Avengers' before we could go on and do 'Captain America 2.' We needed to see if he did anything different, character-wise - and he hadn't, he's an excellent writer - but we also needed to see what he had done in terms of Steve poking around the modern day and dealing with it." 

Markus: "So much of Captain America's adventures occur in the present day, so there are a lot of things I'd like to touch on. That said, we did leave the center section of 'Captain America' baggy enough to let him have adventures you didn't see [in the first film]. So, we kind of have enough room to play with [for the sequel]." 

McFeely: "Still, if he had another adventure entirely set in World War II, the stakes are kind of lessened, because you know he survives and you know what happens to Bucky and you know the Howling Commandos survive long enough to have a toast in a bar." 

Markus: "You know Cap wins and you know that whoever he was fighting didn't destroy the world, because you've already seen things that happen after it. So the stakes are, well... But then again, did that bother anyone with the second 'Indiana Jones' movie?" 

I'm a big fan of the first film so I'm excited to see that they're going forward with the sequel with Joe Johnston still expected at the helm. My only concern is that Joss Whedon had added things to the last film's script to incorporate the Avengers and I assume to add humor as well. Whedon is well known for his whitty oneliners which seemed all over The First Avenger. So hopefully Joss is still going to be apart of the screenwriting side along with Markus and McFeely. There also seems a rich story to be told with Winter Soldier whether it's in a sequel or the Howling Commando spin-off.



The pair also mentioned the potential Howling Commandos spin-off that has been rumored for a while now. Which they're open to making and could end up being very similar to Kelly's Heroes and Inglourious Basterds. The latter isn't surprising as Quentin Tarantino took inspiration for The Basterds from The Howling Commandos comics.


McFeely: "They're certainly cool, and in a different movie, we would've certainly had a little more 'Kelly Heroes' or 'Magnificent Seven". thing going on. (Talking about if they had more screen time) 

Markus: "It would've been like 'Inglourious Commandos." 

McFeely: "Personally, I'm a big fan of that type of movie - the ne'er-do-wells banding together to fight a common cause. So I'm open to it, but... well... I'll just say I'm open to it."

I have to admit that I almost enjoyed the scenes with the Howlers more than the solo Cap scenes. So I'd be on board with a Howling Commandos spin-off. Yet, I'm concerned with the amount of spin-off talk considering the laundry list of other original projects at Marvel that have yet to get off the ground. Their has already been talk of spin-offs for Nick Fury, Black Widow, War Machine, Hawkeye and The Warriors Three. I assume it's just way for Marvel to pump up audiences/fans to root for the supporting characters.