Kevin Feige Describes 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' As A Political Thriller

Captain America: The First Avenger stood out from most of the comic book movie pack because it offered something a bit different. In addition to being yet another superhero origin story, it was a WWII movie that heartily embraced the '40s setting, rather than simply using it as window dressing.

The sequel, subtitled The Winter Soldier, will go into production soon with Chris Evans reprising his role as Cap, and Anthony and Joe Russo stepping in to direct. The film takes its title, and presumably much of its storyline, from the Ed Brubaker-penned storyline of the same name, in which Cap's WWII sidekick Bucky (Sebastian Stan), thought dead, is revived as a Soviet assassin.

If that makes the Cap sequel sound like something that could be a Bourne sequel you might not be too far off, especially given the way Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is describing the movie.

Speaking to Variety, Feige talked about his view of the lasting potential of superhero movies:

If it is a fad, it's one that lasts 30 to 40 years, as the Western did, because each one is so different. There's an opportunity to graft almost sub-genres onto them. Our first Captain America film was a World War II picture, and the next is a political thriller. They all have their own textures and patinas, and that's what is exciting about it.

The key point there for us is obviously the "political thriller" tag applied to the Captain America sequel. Which isn't any sort of big surprise, given that the film's title points squarely at the Brubaker source material, which also features many political thriller elements. (Albeit filtered through the Marvel style.)

This is notable as part of Marvel's efforts to diversify its movies — as Feige says, to graft sub-genres to the new sequels. Captain America was the war movie; Thor was the fantasy movie; Cap 2 will be the political thriller and Guardians of the Galaxy will be the sci-fi epic tinged with comedy. Whether the new films work as explorations of their sub-genres as well as Captain America did is yet to be proven.

The film also features Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie,Frank Grillo, Toby Jones, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Fury, Cobie Smulders, a reported cameo from Hayley Atwell, and Emily VanCamp as the new female lead. It is scheduled to land in theaters April 4, 2014.