The Marvels Director Says Captain America Is The Villain Of Infinity War
The Marvels director has a hot take on Captain America. Here's what she has to say.
Nia DaCosta, director of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film, The Marvels, sat down with Roxane Gay of Inverse. They discussed her work on the sequel to Captain Marvel, what inspired her, and also her sentiments on Captain America (Chris Evans) and his role in the infamous “snap” from Infinity War. The new film is slated to be released on February 2023 and will see the return of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers joined by Teyonah Parris returning as adult Monica Rambeau and the debut of Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel. The release of Nia DaCosta’s second endeavor, The Candyman, is just recently behind her with glowing reviews. Now, the young director is focused on her next project as she dishes out all her thoughts and knowledge on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
According to Nia DaCosta, the Thanos (Josh Brolin) snap at the end of Infinity War could have been completely avoided had it not been for the Cap and his choices leading up to the ending battle in Wakanda. In 2018’s box office hit movie, Infinity War finds the Avengers split apart as they scramble to come up with a way to stop Thanos from attaining all six infinity stones and destroying Earth. In the end, the team is unsuccessful as Thanos strolls up to the end of the Wakanda battle and is able to crush Vision (Paul Bettany) effortlessly to obtain the sixth and final infinity stone.
Looking back at Infinity War, it is easy to see where Nia DaCosta’s blame on Steve Rogers is coming from. Read her full answer to the topic below:
Something I like to say a bit flippantly about Captain America is that the Snap is all his fault because he was trying to do his best, trying to do the right thing. There is a world in which he’s a villain because, at the end of the day, he should have just sacrificed Vision. He chose one robot’s life, albeit a sentient one, over literally the entire universe. There’s a sort of anti-hero in that if you want to look at it through that lens.
Nia DaCosta
So yes, it can be argued that Captain America is to blame for the snap. But the same could be said for almost every other Avenger at some point in time in the MCU. Star Lord (Chris Pratt) could be blamed for the group on Titan not being able to stop Thanos from leaving when he could not control his emotions. Likewise, Drax (Dave Bautista) could be blamed for Thanos’ success when he blew the guardian’s cover on Knowhere.
More important than playing the blame game, DaCosta’s revelation on Steve’s actions in Infinity War makes one thing very apparent in the MCU; and that one thing seems to be that what connects so many fans to these supernatural saviors is their humanity. Steve Rogers is human after all. He is not perfect, and he tends to be cognizant of his previous mistakes.
If anything, Steve’s actions in Infinity War, whether right or wrong, stayed true to the character and his actions. Looking back at the film three years later, it does seem ominous that the world’s largest superhero would choose the life of one artificial intelligence over saving half the world, but in doing so, he stayed true to the Captain’s honor. Steve refused to leave his friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in Captain America: Civil War even though doing so put his moniker at risk. At the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Steve refused to leave the floating city of Sakovia until he knew everyone was saved. Nia DaCosta’s interview has left Marvel fans reeling and torn over their thoughts on Captain America and his actions during Infinity War. Either way, if Marvel’s What If’s series has taught us anything, it’s that even the smallest choices can have massive effects.
