Baron Zemo
Baron Zemoscreenshot/youtube

The upcoming installment of "Captain America: Civil War", is scheduled to be released on 6 May, 2016. As of now, we have some clues on what to expect:

  • Chris Evans will reprise his role as Steven Rogers aka Captain America.
  • Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) will lock horns with the captain over opposing views regarding the regulation of superhuman activity, as advised by world governments.
  • Other superheroes of the Marvel Universe who can be expected in "Civil War" are Anthony Mackie as Falcon, Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch and Frank Grillo as Crossbone.
  • Paul Rudd as Ant-Man may or may not make an appearance, but Rudd has made it amply clear that he would like to be a part of the massive blockbuster.
  • The super-villain in the "Civil War" would be Captain America's greatest nemesis from the comics Baron Zemo.

It has now been confirmed that the role of the super-villain Zemo, will be played by Daniel Brühl, the Spanish-German actor who is best known for the portrayal of former Formula 1 driver Niki Laudain in "Rush". In the wake of this announcement, we have compiled a list of must-know facts about one of Marvel's greatest villains:

  1. Baron Zemo, one of Cap's most prominent nemeses, has two incarnations in the comics. First, as a brilliant Nazi scientist who dies while attempting to kill the Captain. The second is his son Baron Helmut Zemo, who seeks revenge for his father's death. Brühl will reportedly bring Helmut to life in "Civil War".
  2. Helmut Zemo was also an evil scientist like his father and made an attempt to kill the Captain in a manner that would befit his father's killer, but instead fell into a boiling cauldron of Adhesive X. Although initially thought to be dead, he returned a few years later; but his face was disfigured, to cover which, he started using a purple mask.
  3. Helmut used to collaborate with other Nazi supervillains, including biochemist Arnim Zola, who helped Red Skull harness the Tesseract's power in the first "Captain America" movie and experimented on Bucky Barnes, turning him into the Winter Soldier in the second one.
  4. Helmut was especially irked by the peoples' need to worship superheroes. And to prove his point that superheroes aren't all that great, he dressed up as a vigilante Citizen V, and led a group of villains under the guise of "Thunderbolts". It was part of his long-winding plan to take over the world, much like what his father Baron Zemo wanted to acomplish.
  5. According to the story arc pertaining to "Civil War", Zemo plays both sides of the public brawl between the pro and anti-registration forces. He recruits villains for the pro-registration side of the superhero conflict at the request of Tony Stark, while also helping the Captain escape from custody.

Marvel Cinematic Universe has never been one to shy away from tweaking the comic book storylines every now and then. Therefore, it remains to be seen how true Helmut Zemo would remain to his comic book counterpart.

Nevertheless, fans are excited to see Brühl bring Zemo to life on screen for the first time.

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