Thanks to IGN, we have a report from a Q&A promoting the home video release of Captain America: Civil War featuring Producer Kevin Feige and directors Anthony and Joe Russo. The team explained why they did not adapt “The Death of Captain America” for the film. During the comic, Captain America was killed after the conclusion of the “Civil War” story.
Anthony Russo on if they discussed killing Cap: “We did for a beat, but we talk about everything…we do talk about every possible scenario, over and over and over again for months and months. So yeah, we had talked about it. It would never have made it’s way into a realistic version. We actually talked about lots of potential characters dying, but that it would undercut what was really the rich tension of the movie, which was that it’s Kramer vs. Kramer. It’s about a divorce. And if somebody dies, it would create empathy [from the other characters], which would change [things], and allow potential repair. We didn’t want to do that.”
Feige on having no characters die in the film: “In the comic, in the amazing comic book story, which certainly, the conceit of this movie is based on, some of the specifics, during their big battle, which has a hundred times as many characters, a character died. And we talked about that for a while, and ultimately, what happened to Rhodey (Don Cheadle) in the movie we thought—it would be enough of a downer for the tone of the movie.”
Russo on the tragedy of the story: “The tragedy is that the family falls apart. Not that the family falls apart and then somebody dies.”