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Steve will give Spider-Man the "No, you move" speech.
The scenario, their age difference, and the fact that it's one of Cap's most famous lines, from the comics of the same name, would make the inclusion of this speech in the film totally awesome. We know how Marvel movies are about delivering the awesome.
  • Jossed. However, Sharon does include direct lines from the speech at Peggy's funeral.

Baron Zemo will turn out to be the Red Skull
Since there are two Zemos in the comics, Baron Heinrich zemo and Baron Helmut zemo, it's possible that it will be revealed that the original Zemo died after the war and the red skull created a fake identity as his son.
  • Interviews state, he is a departure from his comic book conunterpart and that the audience may be surprised where he comes from. Both would hold true if the MCU Zemo is merely the Red Skull in a new body/identity.
  • Jossed. Zemo is just an ordinary Sokovian soldier, with a lot of anger. It was not until Avengers: Infinity War that it was revealed that Red Skull was actually banished to Vormir.

Tony Stark is going to be a Hero Antagonist.
This seems fairly obvious, considering this is a Captain America movie and Steve's position was considered the "sympathetic" one even in the original comic it's based on.

In the movie he he will reference his 'privatisation of world peace' bit and the Congress hearing regarding the Iron Man armours as all pre-Hydra and pre-Ultron and say how the latter of which convinced Tony to be for regulation. In particular, he will say "I should have let Point Break (i.e. Thor) give me the 'Man must not meddle' speech". This will go towards making him more sympthatic and justify his actions as The Atoner

However, it's not beyond Tony, who has had the intention of making things right before, screw up and make things worse - i.e. his calling out the Mandarin and even making Ultron in the first place. So it's not difficult to see him decide 'woah, someone needs to keep us in line', even though he's the one who needs regulations and checks and balances more than anyone.

  • Confirmed.

Tony Stark will not be pro-reg.
Remember, this is the guy who told Congress to get stuffed when they demanded he turn over his suits, and credits himself with "successfully privatizing world peace". It would be significantly out of character for him to be in favor of placing superhumans under state/transnational governance. The pro-reg side will be represented by someone else.
  • Jossed.

Steve and Tony won't actually fight.
Rather they will sit down and have a calm and reasonable discussion about the pros and cons of superhero registration, before coming up with a sensible, well thought out plan that doesn't infringe on anyone's rights. In this way, they'll avoid Let's You and Him Fight.
  • Jossed. Concept art and the film's teaser shows the two fighting. Assuming those sources to be reliable. They try to have a civil discussion a couple times but something intervenes or one of them breaks it off.

This film will adapt The Death of Captain America
Several of the central characters from it have been introduced in the previous film: Rumlow (Cap's would-be assassin Crossbones), Sharon Carter (Cap's actual assassin while brainwashed), and Winter Soldier (who takes on the mantle of Captain America after Steve's death). It was also as a result of Civil War in the comics. Here Steve's death might serve as martyrdom for his side to rally behind.
  • Jossed. Cap doesn't die, but he becomes a fugitive.

Captain America will die in this film, but will come Back from the Dead and will be Back for the Finale in Avengers: Infinity War
Chris Evans was signed on for six appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he has confirmed that his cameo in Thor: The Dark World was not a part of the contract. This film will be number five on Chris Evans's list, meaning that he still has one movie left over. The most meaningful way for Captain America to make one last appearance would be to show up to lead the Avengers once more in the second part of the major event (since it has essentially been confirmed that the first part will focus on a new roster of Avengers; however, the character could appear in The Stinger in a Wham Shot).
  • Jossed. He just goes into hiding in Wakanda.

Either Winter Soldier or Falcon will take over the title of Captain America if Steve Rogers dies (whether it lasts or not)
This role would more likely go toward Winter Soldier, given that Sebastian Stan has a contract to appear in nine movies (though it's not clear if his appearance in Captain America: The First Avenger was one of them or not), it would seem as though he is a major player in Phase Three and the more likely candidate to pick up the title. Conversely, Anthony Mackie has expressed a bit of doubt that he would take up the shield. Seeing as how every Captain America movie has had Bucky, in some capacity, picking up and wielding the shield, it's likely that he will take on the mantle.
  • Cap doesn't die, but he does pass on the mantle to Falcon in Endgame.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk will be one of the people in charge of the Superhero Registration Act
  • Jossed

Stark will be manipulated into joining the pro-regs by his guilt from creating Ultron
He now believes himself to be dangerous and untrustworthy, and it doesn't take a great leap of thought to extend that to all supers. Because of this, Tony will also switch sides part way through once he realizes how mistaken the idea is, ironically similar to Spider-Man in the original story, or what Tony did during Dark Reign. Meanwhile, whoever else is running it (likely Red Skull, using the Dell Rusk identity as a composite between that and Aleksander Lukin, with maybe some Dark Reign Norman Osborn thrown in too) will take centre stage as the real big bad.
  • Semi-confirmed. Stark's guilt for causing the destruction in Sokovia is a major factor for his stance and Tony does briefly switch sides, but Zemo is the real Big Bad.

Idea for the plot's adaptation
The new Avengers under Captain's leadership will botch a fight with new villains, causing massive casualties. The public will demands superhero regulation. In his remorse for Ultorn, Stark will argue for accountability. Unfortunately for Stark, Hydra will be alive and behind the proposed law. Because of this, the law will be extreme and Captain will argue against it. Unfortunately for Captain; just like with the threat of another alien invasion; he will have no concrete, viable alternative to offer. The law will pass so Captain will go rouge in protest and Stark will be forced to go after him. On the run, Cap will gather evidence of the mission's sabotage. After a long pursuit which will cause even more casualties, Stark will extend a truce to Captain so they can hammer out a better law. Captain will surrender and use the opportunity to voice his objections through the gathered media, hoping his reputation will change minds. Knowing this will work, Hydra will assassinate the Captain. Stark will feel guilty for luring Captain to his death, and vow to find his killers. Stark will discover Captain's clues and figure that Hydra is behind everything, so they will go after him too. But Stark will unite the pro and con side and they will defeat Hydra again, exposing Hydra's sabotage of the mission and influence on the current law. Captain will become a martyr; the new Avengers will be exonerated; and a new, fair and reasonable law will be voted in by popular demand. The Stinger will reveal Cap is actually still alive, but hidden away somewhere as he recovers from his injuries.
  • Confirmed. Cap is indeed still alive,, and hiding away in Wakanda.

Stark will take a bullet for Rogers.
Stark will spot the assassin and shove Rogers away, in the process getting shot himself. The attack will justify Captain's criticism of the registration, the law will be suspended and the rouge heroes pardoned. Captain will vow to capture Stark's killers, unite the two sides and defeat Hydra. The stinger will show Stark coming back the way Pepper did, due to the stabilized but still present extremes.
  • Jossed.

As a stand-in for Spider-Man, a different teenage superhero will be introduced through Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s third season
It could be Nova (Sam Alexander), Squirrel Girl or any of the New Warriors - the latter being the most likely due to their original connection to Civil War, and among them Speedball not because of his whole Penance thing but because he was originally made to be similar to Spider-Man.
  • Squirrel Girl (whose joke is cheap and more based around animal training and offscreen competence) and, most likely, Night Thrasher will be involved. He's a teen superhero, his mask covers more of his face AND he doesn't have ANY superpowers, not even cheap ones like Squirrel Girl. If they replace Spider-Man with a teen hero (leaving aside the fact that Peter was, at the very least, in his mid-late 20s (closer to Daredevil early on) when the unmasking happened in the comics), it'll be either of those two.
    • Jossed because Spider-Man is confirmed for the film. While he likely will not have as large a role as he did in the comic, he is currently the only confirmed teen hero in the movie.

Spider-Man will appear in this film following Sony's discussion with Marvel
However, he will be played by a different actor than Andrew Garfield, following the principle of Quicksilver being played by a separate actor than the character in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
  • According to this, if this goes through, then a different actor will to play Spidey.
  • Logan Lerman appears to be the frontrunner for the character, should the deal go through (and with the leaked information from the Sony hacks, it's looking extremely likely that it will). By the time this movie comes out, he will be 24 - three years younger than Tobey Maguire was when the first Spider-Man movie was released.
  • Confirmed. Spider-Man will appear. Actor is Tom Holland.

Wakanda will offer Cap and co asylum
Falcon gets a new set of wings made of vibranium, and the suit will be red since the Wakandans aren't as concerned with Boring, but Practical costumes as the Americans who made the original Falcon suit were. Hell, their leader dresses up like a cat!
  • Partly confirmed. At the end of the movie Bucky and Steve is in Wakanda as T'Challa's guests, with Bucky being frozen down — on his own request — until the Wakandan doctors can figure out how to remove the Hydra control functions in his brain.

The movie will be full of Continuity Porn
Every superhero in the MCU will end up picking a side, from the Avengers to the Defenders to Deathlok, Mockingbird, Ant-Man, and Hank Pym. Depending on how closely they follow the comics, we could even see the return of some old villains working for the pro-reg side. Even if it's only a cameo, Marvel's going to do their best to make sure everyone gets a part.
  • Jossed. Hank Pym is only once mentioned by Scott.

The Mandarin will team up with the movie's Big Bad
With The Reveal at the end of All Hail the King in place and Iron Man 4 being questionable, this would be a good opportunity to bring in the real Mandarin.
  • Jossed.

The film will have several Take Thats to the controversial aspects from the original comic
For example:
  • Sally Floyd or a Sally Floyd expy will show up and spout the infamous "YouTube" diatribe, only for Captain America to respond and deliver a withering Kirk Summation to her.
  • Someone from the government will suggest getting rid of the Hulk by shooting him up into space, only for Tony Stark to immediately outline the many, many reasons why that's a stupid idea.
  • They can have the "YouTube" rant go on, only for Cap to respond that he does watch YouTube and is now up-to-date on all this pop-culture stuff. (given he's been shown as eager to catch up on stuff, it'd make sense), but that doesn't mean that somehow liberty and freedom are no longer important, because that would be stupid.
  • In the same vein, Spider-Man will find a way to rip on One More Day.
    • All Jossed.

Assuming it doesn't happen in Age Of Ultron, Falcon will get a new primarily-red colour scheme
Possibly with Sam expressing similar sentiments his actor expressed over wanting to look more like a superhero with a more superhero-like look.
  • Sort of confirmed? Falcon was given a redesign for Civil War that incorporates way more red, but technically it debuted in Age of Ultron as an Early-Bird Cameo.

The film will have a B-plot about Winter Soldier trying to track down what's left of his handlers that involves uncovering a conspiracy involving the SHRA
At first Steve will be focused on tracking him until they get distracted by the Civil War stuff, with Sam promising to keep searching for him while Steve deals with that. He ends up tracking Bucky, but the two end up uncovering some secret connected to the SHRA, forcing them to work together. They might butt heads at first due to their very different personalities, as well as minor jealousy over their close friendships with Steve, but like in the comics, the two will end up working together so much they bond and become buddies.

If she returns, Black Widow may also appear and similarly develop her comic-book relationship with Bucky over the course of the film as well if she's involved in the Winter Soldier hunt too, possibly with her own subplot about her true connection to him.

  • Jossed.

Crossbones will kill Steve at the end of the movie.
He will do so just like he did so in the original comic, setting up Bucky to become Captain America in Avengers: Infinity War.
  • Semi-confirmed. He tries to kill Steve in the beginning, but fails and Steve is still alive by the end of the film.

Daniel Bruhl's role is Baron Helmut Zemo.
  • Furthermore, the film will set up the founding of Thunderbolts, and Zemo will take the place of Osborn if and when the MCU adapts The Dark Reign.
  • Confirmed, but Norman Osborn is now back in Marvel's hands due to their partnership with Sony. Also, the idea of setting a Thunderbolts storyline seems Jossed in at least some form. Given that the actor and directors have all said Zemo is far removed from the comics, the set up needed for the general concept of the Thunderbolts may not even be in this version of Zemo at all. He might still be the one to lead the Masters of Evil, but if they willingly chose to make him non-comic-like, it seems to assume they didn't want to plant seeds for his longterm story to be his longterm story from the comics.

The Cold Opening will be Captain America and Falcon taking down the Serpent Society
Partly to show off Captain America's skill-set/set the mood of the current political climate, and partly as an in-joke since Captain America 3 was originally marketed as Captain America vs. the Serpent Society.
  • Jossed.

Black Widow will take Sharon Carter's role in Steve's assassination.
  • Black Widow is one of the closest people to Steve, like Sharon was at the time, her complicity would set up a redemption arc, and it would be one hell of a Gut Punch. Assuming HYDRA isn't defeated at the end of Age of Ultron, Black Widow could end up killing Steve because HYDRA brainwashed her.
  • Jossed.

Daniel Bruhl's role is Baron Mordo.
He will take the role Doctor Faustus had in the original story, essentially making him a Composite Character.
  • Jossed - he's playing Baron Zemo.

The Bucky subplot will be tied into the greater Cap vs. Tony arc by the revelation that Bucky assassinated Tony's parents.
It was implied when it was revealed that HYDRA killed Howard and Maria Stark that the Winter Soldier was the one personally responsible for the hit. Now with all of SHIELD's files released to the public that information is going to make its way to Tony and he's going to be pissed. Apprehending Bucky to make him pay for his crimes as the Winter Soldier is going to be one of his top priorities, which is at odds with Cap defending his best friend, making their conflict a much more personal issue.
  • Confirmed!

The movie will feature the Thunderbolts, and it will combine aspects from several vesions of the team.
They will be led by Ross (like the Marvel NOW version) or maybe Zemo, and they will hunt unregistered heroes (like Osborn's first team), and Crossbones will be on the team (like the Heroic Age version). Crossbones will convince Ross that he didn't know Pierce was a member of HYDRA, and will be allowed on the team, but near the end, he will betray the team and kill the already captured Cap.
  • It could also be a literal combination of the various versions: the original (with Baron Zemo played by Daniel Bruhl as a member), Dark Reign (with Norman Osborn played by Martin Freeman creating it), and Marvel NOW! (with General Thunderbolt Ross leading it) teams with the team name explicitly named after General Ross. If Zemo leads the team, he may order Crossbones to shoot the already captured Cap.
  • Jossed. According to the early footage, Crossbones is still very much a bad guy and terrorist, and he clashes with the Avengers for legitimately villainous reasons rather than trying to arrest the Anti-Registration heroes.

Henry Pym will appear on the Pro-Registration side
In addition to being one of the major Pro-Reg players in the original story (Well, a Skrull posing as him), the Comic-Con teaser for Ant-Man features Pym saying that he considers superheroes to be a "goddamn joke". Assuming he survives the events of Ant-Man, he may be a major advocate for making sure superheroes are kept under stricter supervision. On the other hand, in Ant-Man Hank made it clear that he doesn't like or trust Tony Stark or S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • Jossed. Scott gets a sort of Fastball Special via a special sabot capsule arrowhead in Barton's arsenal. Barton is Anti-Reg, and Ant-Man was flying through Iron Man's fingers, presumably to give Tony an ant-sized wallop.

Iron Man will sport his black suit of armor from Marvel NOW!
So far, Iron Man has sported at least one new suit of armor in every film he's appeared in, save for his cameo in The Incredible Hulk. Civil War will continue the trend, and give him the black suit he wore in Marvel NOW for a more intimidating look.
  • Jossed. Concept art has him wearing a new suit of armor, but it still retains the classic red and gold coloring.

Black Widow will pull her holo-disguise trick from The Winter Soldier on the Pro-Reg side
At a key point in the movie, we'll find out that a female character on the Pro-Registration side has been Mugged for Disguise by Black Widow, who helps deal a surprise blow to them.
  • Jossed. She's Pro-reg.

We will see cameos from international superheroes
In the same way the tie-ins for the Civil War comic showed what was happening in countries like France, Japan, and Canada, the movie will briefly show heroes like Captain Britain in the U.K. and the Ascendant in China to underscore the scope of the Registration Act.
  • Jossed.

There will be a reference to Rikki Barnes
Except rather than being Bucky's Alternate Universe granddaughter like in the Heroes Reborn comics, she will be a grandniece who he meets while trying to piece together whether or not any of his family members are still alive.
  • Jossed.

Bruce Banner will take Reed Richards' role.
  • Jossed. He's absent from the film.

The Defenders from the Netflix series will have minor parts in the film.
If only to pad out the ranks of the heroes in the film.
  • Jossed. Charlie Cox has said Daredevil isn't in it.

The Serpent Society WILL appear in the film.
  • Jossed.

If Baron Zemo is in the movie, his plan will be to organize the Masters of Evil
After seeing Hydra fail with Project Insight, he will come to believe that the only way to defeat the Avengers and take over the world is by fighting fire with fire. So he manipulates the events following Age of Ultron and the enactment of the SHRA to pit Cap and Tony against each other. While they’re busy fighting each other, Zemo will convince the government to create their own army of “superheroes”: the Thunderbolts. This team will eventually act as Zemo’s elite fighting force and will come to be called the Masters of Evil.
  • Potential members for the Masters could be Crossbones, Abomination, Yellowjacket, and Absorbing Man.
    • Considering Yellowjacket died at the end of Ant-Man, that means he won't show up in this film. Although HYDRA is in possession of the Pym Particles...
  • It seems unlikely they will use the Thunderbolts part. Interviews have had them not shy away from wanting to distance MCU Zemo from comic Zemo. That doesn't bode well for them to be using that aspect of his character after dismissing the expectation he's going to be like the comics.
  • Semi-confirmed. Zemo does manipulate the Avengers, but there is no mention of the Thunderbolts at all and Zemo's plan is just to rip the Avengers apart.

Peter Parker will die in the film.
He'll fill a role similar to the one in the comics, except here the strain between Steve and Tony will result in Peter dying in the crossfire. This will lead into the Spider-Man Solo-film, which will introduce Miles Morales.
  • Jossed. The Sony-Marvel Studios solicit say that they are going to continue telling stories with Peter Parker. If Miles Morales is introduced, it will be much later on. Not to mention that the concept of introducing Miles Morales would essentially involve making another Origins Episode, which Marvel says that they don't want to do.

There will be a Lampshade Hanging about Spider-man movie reboots
People will ask Spider-man about his origins and he will give a very quick anecdote about being bitten. When pressed for more detail he will very irritably say something along the lines of : "I feel like I told this story several times before!"
  • Confirmed. When Tony Stark asks, Peter just says "it's a long story".

Bucky will be the one to kill Steve, not Sharon
Since Sharon has been Demoted to Extra in the previous film, her killing Captain America wouldn't have nearly the same impact to general audiences that it had in the comics, and one movie isn't enough to develop her or her romance with Steve enough without risking them getting Strangled by the Red String. Whereas after everything that happened in The Winter Soldier, and with Bucky's relationship with Steve having already been well-established over two movies, it would be an extremely cruel twist of fate for him to kill Steve.

Lending support to this idea, the working title for Civil War is "Sputnik". In the comics it was a codeword used to shut Bucky down, so here it might be used as the trigger for Bucky to do the deed. In addition, it's revealed in Agent Carter that Doctor Faustus is in the MCU and confirmed by Word of God to be connected to the Winter Soldier program, allowing him to keep a similar role as in the comics. If not Doctor Faustus himself then a Legacy Character using his name and methods.

Perhaps this is what Zemo's big role is that they can't reveal. They could instead make him a modern neo nazi german political leader. The "coming from a place you don't think", will mean his role we akin to stay Putin or a possible President Drumpf. He'll want to essentially be a second Hitler that will try to rise to power by trying to get the public to turn on super heroes. All of his plots will be designed to completly shatter the trust of the public. His biggest ploy of all using Faustus' information to have Bucky kill Cap for all the world to see.

  • Jossed. Steve lives.

Spider-Man's origin could be linked to the Hulk.
If he was bitten by a radioactive spider, why not link it to Banner's gamma experiments?

Spider-Man's role will be smaller than in the comics
It's unlikely that he would have a big role, since it wasn't sure he would even be in the movie. Plus, this new Spider-Man has less personal history with Steve and Tony than the comic book version did, and therefore isn't as close to them.
  • Confirmed. The Russos have said he doesn't appear in the film until after most of the other characters, and that he doesn't have any real personal investment in the conflict. Also, Variety reported that Tom Holland is only filming for a week, and he was cast well after the film had already started shooting.

Like how The Incredible Hulk takes Hulk as Broad Strokes canon, Spider-Man will have a similar feel
Specifically, the events at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Gwen being dead. This will impact Peter's choices in story. For example, let's say that the Spider-Man in film is already in a relationship with Mary Jane, but Gwen still died at some point in his career. That could influence his unease at who to side with, either the Government who could regulate younger heroes, training them to prevent this, or privacy to help keep Mary Jane safe from rogue Government elements.
  • Jossed, as this Spider-Man is younger than his previous incarnations.

The next Spider-Man film following this movie will be a loose adaption of One More Day.
Making less of a reboot and more of a Cosmic Retcon story and a Stealth Sequel.
  • Jossed, as Marvel has said they plan on telling Spider-Man stories centered around his highschool days, which precludes any storylines involving his marriage to MJ.

Norman Osborn and HAMMER will be involved.
Norman will be in charge of the pro-reg side and draw Tony into it.
  • Jossed.

The actor (and possibly identity) of Spider-Man will, in a bold move, only be announced in this movie
One of the iconic images related to Civil War is the one of Spidey about to take off his mask at a press conference to promote the Registration Act. A movie version of this scene would be the perfect opportunity to announce the actor in the film itself.
  • Jossed. The actor for Spider-Man was announced publicly on June 23rd as Tom Holland, almost a year before the film's release.

Steve will use Winter Soldier as evidence why the Registration Act shouldn't go through
SHIELD had plenty of oversight. The problem was that instead of catching HYDRA's infiltration, they were corrupted, too. Given that between Winter Soldier and AoS there's plenty of evidence that the government agencies (Including the World Security Council and the US Senate) that were supposed to be watching over SHIELD failed utterly to do their job when they weren't actively helping the situations their oversight was supposed to prevent, why should the world trust another oversight agency? What makes this one actually capable of doing its job when the others failed so miserably?
  • Jossed. He doesn't bring it up.

Steve and Tony's stances on Registration will be reversed from the comics
It would make more sense for their MCU characterizations: Cap will point out to the events in The Age of Ultron showing how people acting on their own (Stark and Banner create Ultron) can go out of hand and result in numerous deaths. Stark has a history of mocking authority and can point out how Government control isn't the best idea either, citing the Winter Soldier program and the whole HYRDA fiasco as a counter-example. Their animosity will remain, but the positions will be exact opposite from the comic version, possibly making in Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • Jossed. The first teaser explicitly has Iron Man arguing that without oversight, the Avengers are no better than the villains they fight.

Stark will design the MCU equivalent of the Mandroid for the Pro-Reg side
As Whiplash said "Humans make problem; drone better". This way he can better control the players in the field and more justifiably blame himself for everything that goes wrong.
  • Jossed.

Vision will side with Cap
So they can do the scene where Ironman is beating the hell out of the extremely outmatched Cap until Vision shows up and jams the armor, which will be even more meaningful here because he'd be turning against his creator and old friend.
  • Jossed. Vision is Pro-Reg all the way.

Baron Zemo will manipulate Tony for his own ends
He will prey on Tony's guilt and remorse over Ultron to support increasingly draconian measures to deal with the superhuman community. Tony will of course be unaware that Zemo has his own agenda in all this.
  • Confirmed. He manipulates all the Avengers to get revenge on them.

Zemo will not yet be disfigured and will possibly have a cover identity
Maybe even posing as a European politician who supports registration.
  • Confirmed. He's not disfigured and he disguises himself as a psychologist to brainwash Bucky.

Zemo is not using a cover identity at all
He may actually be a genuine, democratically elected European political figure who happens to be a part of HYDRA, assuming they keep his connections to HYDRA at all.
  • Jossed.

War Machine and The Vision will be on Iron Man's side
War Machine out of loyalty to Tony and The Vision because Tony helped create him.
  • Confirmed, but The Vision's stance is because he fears that "conflict incites catastrophe" and oversight will help mitigate it.

Tony's actions will be partially motivated by the threat of Thanos
In addition to his guilt over Ultron's actions, it's possible that Age of Ultron will see the Avengers learning of Thanos and the Infinity Stones. Given that as Iron Man 3 showed, Tony was greatly traumatized by his last encounter with extraterrestrials, he may view registration as a necessary step to combat Thanos and his empire. After all, there's strength in numbers, so he may think that all the heroes of Earth united under one umbrella (even unwillingly) stand a better chance against Thanos than the Avengers do by themselves.
  • Semi-confirmed: he is scared something might be coming for them, which is what led him to created Ultron, and the fallout from Ultron is what leads him to be Pro-reg.

Hawkeye will not be on Cap's side
He may be on the Pro-Registration side in order to cause dramatic tension with Black Widow. It'd also allow the Russo brothers to recycle the planned Captain America vs. Hawkeye fight that was cut from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Also, it was revealed in Age Of Ultron that Hawkeye is married with a family, similar to his Ultimate Marvel portrayal. If they are killed off as the result of another superhuman's irresponsibility, then that would provide a strong motive for Hawkeye to become Pro-Registration. Even if his family isn't killed, Hawkeye has benefited from the security SHIELD has supplied them all with. If it's a choice between going rogue for his ideals or protecting his family, Hawkeye could very possibly choose the later.
  • Jossed. He appears on Cap's side in the D23 footage.

List of heroes appearing in the movie
Confirmed:
  • Captain America
  • Iron Man
  • Falcon
  • Winter Soldier
  • Hawkeye
  • Black Widow
  • Black Panther
  • Agent 13 (Speculated)
  • Scarlet Witch (Speculated)
  • Spider-Man (Speculated)
  • War Machine (Speculated)
  • Ant-Man (Speculated)
  • The Vision (Speculated)

Speculative:

  • Quicksilver
  • Phil Coulson
  • Quake
  • Deathlok

Disconfirmed:

  • Nick Fury
  • Wasp

  • Quicksilver has explicitly been disconfirmed. Though people still speculate he may return because of Johnson's talk about contracts, Feige has been adamant that Pietro is dead. Lying Creator could be in effect, but thus far, all official evidence indicates that Quicksilver is dead and not in the movie.
  • As the Agents of SHIELD are not present in any trailers, cast lists, or promotional material, it's safe to assume they're not in the film unless it's as a secret surprise cameo.
    • Indeed, they don't appear.

Who's on which side.
A new report from Joblo is claiming the roster will shake out something like:
  • Pro-Reg
    • Iron Man
    • War Machine
    • The Vision
    • Ant-Man
  • Anti-Reg
    • Captain America
    • Falcon
    • Black Widow
    • Hawkeye
  • Unaffiliated/caught in the middle
    • Black Panther
    • Winter Soldier
    • Scarlet Witch
    • Spider-Man
    • Wasp
  • Promo art seems to have confirmed the line-ups: Pro-Reg has Iron Man, War Machine, Black Widow, the Vision and Black Panther. Anti-Reg has Cap, Falcon, Sharon Carter, Hawkeye, Ant-Man and the Winter Soldier.

List of villains appearing in the movie
Confirmed:
  • Crossbones
  • Baron Zemo

Speculative:

  • Red Skull
  • Arnim Zola
  • Doctor Faustus
  • The Leader
  • Abomination
  • Norman Osborn
  • Bullseye
  • Grant Ward
  • Absorbing Man
  • Blizzard
  • Calvin Zabo

Most of those are unlikely for the same reasons listed above. Ward, Absorbing Man, Blizzard, and Calvin Zabo are all Agents of SHIELD characters and thus would require explanations as to who they are and where they came from. With the movie already jam packed, the creators probably don't want to have to do a slew of new introductions.

Faustus was also middle aged during the 1940's as seen in Agent Carter, so unless he is immortal, he's likely long dead.

  • Additionally, at least two of these suggestions couldn't possibly be in this movie. Zabo was revealed to be a reluctant villain in season 2 of AOS, and the season ended with him presumably living a peaceful existence. Meanwhile Grant Ward was killed off in Season 3, though an entity is now possessing his body.
  • It'd be too long to list everything wrong with the original WMG, but to put it simply all TV characters are Jossed, as are the Leader, the Abomination, Bullseye, and Norman Osborn.

Thor and Hulk will not appear in the movie
  • The point being, they won't get involved with the "Civil War" in question. Thor will obviously have to deal with matters concerning Asgard, as suggested by the trailers for Avengers: Age of Ultron and the name of his third movie (Thor: Ragnarok). Hulk stolen a stealth Quinjet, and left for parts unknown, likely in self-imposed exile for the foreseeable future, while Thor returns to Asgard to figure out the mystery of who has been behind the appearances of the Infinity Stones. Thor: Ragnarok is confirmed to pick up right as Thor returns to Asgard at the end of Age of Ultron, so the events of that film will presumably keep him busy until Infinity War.
  • The only chance that Thor will show up in the film is if it's a lead-in to Ragnarok, which is unlikely considering that that's four whole movies away and the Infinty Stones (presumably) don't play a role in this movie.
  • It's questionable whether Thor even could legitimately take a position on the Accords, considering he's not a citizen of any Earth nation and has no formal standing as an Asgardian ambassador. Although it'd be amusing if he sided with the anti-Reg faction, because with the Tesseract no longer on Earth, deporting him for anti-government action would be an interesting logistical quandary.
  • Confirmed.

Hercules will appear
THOU ART NO THOR!
  • Jossed. The movie focuses on a smaller group of heroes, and as far as we know, the Clone Thor will not be showing up.

Cap will use Zola's Algorithm to find allies.
The algorithm identified people who were the biggest threat to HYDRA. At least some would be useful in Cap's rebellion against registration.
  • Jossed.

Peggy Carter will take Sharon's role of assassinating Captain America
Who would think an old lady would be involved with an assassination?
  • Jossed. She's dead.

Zemo will be the new leader of HYDRA.
With Strucker perishing at Ultron's hands, the position is up for the grabs.
  • Jossed. The current leader of Hydra is former World Councilman Gideon Malick.

Team Coulson will appear.
The fallout from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse is a big factor in the movie's premise, after all.
  • Jossed. The Russos have said they haven't even been keeping up with the show.

Ant-Man will be the main character of a subplot
He can't simply be forgotten after his movie's end - not after he fought so hard for this recognition! Scott will be an Anti-Reg guy (he seems the type) but Hank Pym backs the Pro-Regs and thus provoking a "master and disciple" conflict.
  • Semi-confirmed. Although he plays a pretty big role in the fight, he's sent to the Raft and Hank doesn't show up.

Peter Parker will be caught in the middle of the two sides of the war, and represent how damaging the conflict is.
In the original Civil War, things came to an end when Captain America realized that the damages caused by fighting just weren't worth it and surrendered in order to end the conflict. Rather than just looking around in the middle of a fight and seeing how much they've messed up New York, both sides will decide to lay down their weapons upon seeing Spider-Man, a teenager simply trying to do what's right and caught between two unwavering ideologies near-death after being caught in the crossfire. Bonus points if he gets badly injured trying to convince Cap and Tony to just talk things out.
  • Jossed. He remains firmly on Iron Man's side and is sent home after the airport fight to keep him out of trouble.

Quicksilver will come Back from the Dead in this movie or another
It's a comic book movie and neither heroes nor villains stay dead.
  • Jossed. Sadly, he doesn't show up.

Bruce Banner/Hulk will either come out of hiding
during the film or have a cameo where he's shown hiding from the government.He'd be the last person who'd agree to let himself be used by the government, but at the same time someone has to tell Tony he's being dumb. On May 14th, 2015. Mark Ruffalo linked to a week old announcement about Civil War beginning filming, with a comment that the Marvel family is getting a bigger. Is he hinting that he's in the movie, or just late to the party?
  • Jossed. He isn't seen at all.

Spider-Man will be shown getting his powers from a gem-powered spider instead of a radioactive one.
The Gems are the catalyst for many super-powers in this universe like the super serum was in the Ultimate universe. Part of the plot will involve Iron-man and Cap racing to locate the new 'Enhanced' and trying to get him on their side.
  • Jossed, for this movie. Spidey's origins aren't touched upon here.

Spider-Man will be given the Iron Spider armour by Tony Stark
Obviously Tony and Steve, who presumably put apart their differences to team up against Zemo for the climactic final battle, would not want a 15/16 year old Peter Parker entering the battle unprotected. So, Tony will build Peter an armour, the Iron Spider armour from the comics which he dons during the Civil War story arc. He will gain an AI named Jessica.
  • Semi-confirmed. Spidey has already made webbing and a homemade costume, but Stark gives him his new costume instead of armor.

Spider-Man will be the catalyst for the Super Registration Act.
We've already been told that we won't be seeing Spidey's origin again, so he'll have his powers already at the start. This movie will kick off with an action sequence right from the start, Spidey in a battle with some supervillian (Either someone audiences would be familiar with from the previous continuities, or someone whose destructive but simple to understand). In this continuity, he'll still be relatively new to the hero business, and the battle will result in heavy collateral damage (which won't be Spider-Man's fault, or at least he'll do his best to stop it, but being Spider-Man, he'll accept responsibility for it). Thus, new SHIELD are angry about Enhanceds they don't know about trying to do heroics on their own and come up with the Registration Act. Going hand in hand with that, Peter will be one of the big contention points between Steve and Tony. Tony will think that Peter's too young for this and out of his league, whereas Steve will see a bit of himself in Peter: Someone who very much wants to help people and do good, but maybe needs some help gaining the skills and know-how to do it.
  • Jossed. The catalyst for government involvement will be collateral damage caused by a battle between the Avengers and Crossbones.

Tony will remake Extremis and use it
Tony will stress that this isn't the drug from Iron Man 3 but rather a nano-enhancement- basically the Extremis from the original comic. Further, he's been inspired by the Vision to incorporate nanotechnology into his armor, with the Mark 46 being a prototype, and a new mark 47 being the realized version- the Extremis armor. This way, he'd have a reason to not use his armor to fight Steve. Super-Soldier of not, Tony knows full well he can build an armor to counter Cap outright. Another thing that's always bothered Tony someone turning his work against innocent people. This way, no one can steal his tech and if anything goes wrong, he'd be the only one to die.
  • Jossed.

The identity of Martin Freeman's character.
  • Heinrich Zemo
  • MODOK
  • Norman Osborn
  • A pre-accident Otto Octavius
  • Doctor Faustus, here a Legacy Character from the version seen in Agent Carter.
  • Everett K. Ross, which would make sense given Black Panther's role in the story and fits the "average joe" description his character received in the casting announcement.
    • Confirmed.
  • Union Jack - Even though the original character appeared as one of the Howling Commandos in First Avenger, Freeman could be playing a Legacy Character version in the MCU.
  • Secretary of State Dell Rusk, aka Red Skull. He would definitely have good motivation for controlling superheroes. Before anyone talks about the casting, Martin Freeman managed to give quite a good American accent in Fargo, and also managed to give a good performance as both a nice guy and a killer.
    • Jossed, according to Mark Millar, who said that Freeman will not be playing an empowered character or the Red Skull, although it's possible cover identities don't count.

The Civil War will be about The Initiative
The facility at the end of Age of Ultron looks less like a base of operations and more like a training facility. Since we already know they're training four new Avengers there and we saw soldier-ish people running around in formations, it looks like The Initiative is a thing. Cap, Fury, and Hill work together to try and bring the Initiative out as a defense solution now that they know the Infinity Stones are out there and highly dangerous, and that anyone looking for them will have to come for the Vision. Cap will agree, as he'll be in a leadership role to keep an eye on it and he trusts people to do the right thing more than he trusts technology. Tony will disagree as he sees this as much the same as his Ultron program, and also a bit out of ego as he isn't included.
  • Jossed.

General Ross will become the Red Hulk in this movie
He will play a similar role to Ragnarok (the clone of Thor) in the comics - he will be the game-changer that the Pro-Reg team will use in the first major battle. This could also be a catalyst for Hulk to return.
  • Jossed. Ross remains Ross.

Ant-Man will be the seventh member of the New Avengers
He will have been recruited as part of the team after the events of his own film. Since the new team is lacking in raw power thanks to the lack of Thor and Hulk, he could potentially become Giant-Man and act as The Big Guy.
  • Jossed. He's recruited after the rift between the Avengers has already begun.

Civil War Meme will get a reference or Lampshade Hanging
So it will be Ascended Meme.
  • For example, either Tony or Steve will say something like this, "What do you think we fight each other now? You think we only do this because we disagree about simple and trivial things?!"
  • Another example could be: the film will open with a heated debate between Cap and Tony about something trivial. They bicker, get in each other's faces, a shot of Cap, and shot of Tony, and BOOM: the logo of the movie, except the meme up to eleven with blaring orchestral music and animation.
  • May not happened in the movie yet, but happened in Nick Kids Choice Awards 2016 showed Chris Evans and RDJ finally settling it once and for all...with a thumb war.
  • Josssed.

Peggy Carter will die of old age, as she did in the comics.
Rumors have mentioned that the film will feature a sad funeral scene, and it would add a sense of closure to her and Steve's relationship. Steve and Sharon will be at the funeral together, and this meeting will set them on the road to eventually their own comics-canon romance.
  • Confirmed.

Harley from Iron Man 3 will die.
The funeral will be for Harley. It's been confirmed that the Superhero Registration Act will be set in motion a disaster. Harley's actor has a multiple-film contract with Marvel, and Tony's friendship with Harley would add another personal level of motivation to Tony becoming Pro-Registration at the start of the film.
  • Jossed. The inciting incident is a battle between the Avengers and HYDRA in Africa. Unless Harley somehow bought himself a plane ticket, he's likely not involved.
    • Indeed, he never appears or is mentioned.

Pro-Cap / Anti-Stark / "Accountability War" Guess
Captain America will be the Pro-Reg side, wanting more accountability from Tony Stark, but a lot of his former allies will oppose the registration for various reasons, reducing Cap's allies and causing him to fight most of them. In this scenario, the anti-regs include the following:
  • Iron Man (doesn't want to be controlled)
  • Black Widow (in defense of the absent Hulk)
  • Winter Soldier (fearful of persecution for past actions)
  • Scarlet Witch (same as above)
  • Ant-Man (due to history as a thief)
  • Spider-Man (doesn't want to reveal his identity)
Meanwhile, the Pro-Reg side includes the following:
  • Captain America (wanting more regulation for Iron Man in particular)
  • The Falcon (following the lead of Captain America)
  • War Machine (on the side of the government as is)
  • T'Challa / Black Panther (none too happy about the Hulkbuster incident)
  • General Thaddeus Ross (in opposition to the Hulk)
And a few wildcards:
  • The Vision (unknown position)
  • Crossbones (as a clearcut villain)
  • Baron Zemo (another villain)
  • Hawkeye (not involved?)

  • Jossed. As stated above, Iron Man is confirmed Pro-Reg, Black Widow's choice in side is about her and not about the Hulk, Black Panther is confirmed neutral, Captain America and Falcon are confirmed Anti-Reg, and Ant-Man is confirmed as part of Cap's team.

He'd softened a bit at the end of TIH. He might even be Sharon's boss at the CIA or he might be still gruff, but much more reasonable and puts up several good ideas. He might even be mildly sympathetic to Bruce, but be incredibly rude and hostile to Tony, due to the latter wrecking his favourite bar.
  • Conversely, Ross could still be trying to capture Banner (whom he views as government property) and the Sokovia Accords are simply a more refined means to that end. He could use his position to push the UN to order the pro-reg side to bring Banner in, likely citing the danger the Hulk poses, and let others do the dirty work for him.
  • Sort of confirmed. He's no longer a General Ripper and acknowledges that the Avengers have done some great stuff, but he's still pretty hard-edged and insistent on them obeying him.

Phil Coulson will be reintroduced to the movie verse
The end of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2 has him assigning Skye the task of building a black ops team of Gifted individuals; like the Avengers but secret. This will be either mentioned in the movie in comparison to the Superhero Registration Act, or the team itself will make an appearance. Either way, Coulson will be said to be behind it and so his ressurection will become known to Steve and Tony.
  • Jossed. Team Coulson doesn't appear and nothing concerning the TV show is mentioned. The Russos even admitted before the movie was out that they haven't been keeping up with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore.

Some lesser-known superheroes will be introduced as tertiary characters to make the conflict a little more extensive
The entire basis of Civil War is derived from how many people government-mandated control of superheroes would affect - and while Spider-Man and Black Panther are being introduced for the movie, there is a lot more to the story than just that. That's where these guys would come in - they'd allow for a larger conflict by increasing the size of the cast without taking away screentime from the major characters. They'd essentially be like a number of the supporting cast Mutants in the X-Men movies.
  • Jossed. The only heroes in the movie are the ones seen in the trailers.

It will be revealed that Bucky's robotic arm is made of Vibranium.
For added comparisons to his best friend; the shield and the arm.
  • Jossed.Iron Man blows it apart with his unibeam, it's clearly weaker than Vibranium

Hawkeye's family will die.
Tony will go to Hawkeye to try to get him on the pro-reg team. Hawkeye will refuse, deciding to stay out of the conflict. His house will then be attacked by a villain or group of villains (sent by either Zemo to follow Stark or, should Stark go full heel like in the comics, by Stark himself) and Hawkeye's familly will die in the ensuing battle. This will result in Hawkeye taking up his Ronin persona and joining the anti-reg team.
  • Jossed.

Hawkeye will be forced to leave his family to keep them safe when he joins the fight
Possibly as set-up for a Hawkeye solo project taking inspiration from his recent comic book, Clint may take the role Luke Cage had in the story of being the hero content to stay out of it until he's forced into it. At first, Clint would refuse to get involved, but as a result of the SHRA and/or as a poor attempt by Tony to get him involved, his identity and address is leaked to the public, causing him to be targeted at home. Clint is able to get his family to safety (likely with Cap and Widow's help), but joins the anti-reg side to get payback for what happened. His wife will try to talk him out of it, but in the end Laura and the kids have to go into hiding while Clint continues to support Cap.As an epilogue of sorts, Clint will be shown at the end now living in an apartment building under an assumed name, possibly with his hair now dyed a lighter shade of blonde to look more like his comic counterpart and hide himself better, and maybe even donning his classic mask from now on. He'll keep a photo of his family and try to stay in contact with them, but for their safety he can't be near them.That way, you get the angst of his life being destroyed, and setting him closer to his comic self for those wishing that, without having to mean-spiritedly kill off his family!
  • The ending leaves it ambiguous. Hawkeye does indeed become a fugitive, but because his family was already secret and kept off the grid, it's not known if he had to abandon them.

Bucky/Winter Soldier will come back and be on Steve's side during the movie.
Steve will be the minority against the registration act, and like in the Winter Soldier, the people on top will decide to try and get rid of him to keep him out of their way, because Captain America holds a lot of sway with the general public. Tony will probably not know about these plans. Cut to Steve getting beat up by superthugs/giant robots/whatever in a back alley in DC. He's lost his shield, and he's losing the fight. Just as everything goes dark for Steve, he will see another figure appear and pull his attackers away. When Steve wakes up in the next scene, he will find Bucky sitting there, waiting for him to wake up, and Bucky will complain about always having to finish Steve's battles for him. He will also give Steve back the shield that was picked up somewhere, and the two of them will work as a team kicking butt and taking names for the rest of the movie.
  • Confirmed.

We'll see a slew of new costumes
In addition to the confirmed new costume for Falcon, a new rumor says that various heroes will sport new looks, including Captain America, War Machine (who is stated to pilot a "tank-like" Mini-Mecha), Ant-Man (who allegedly has a new suit that allows him to transform into Giant-Man), and Hawkeye. War Machine and Ant-Man could receive their upgraded outfits from Tony Stark after siding with him, while Cap and Hawkeye might just need new costumes to replace their Avengers uniforms if they become fugitives/rebels.
  • Confirmed via some leaked concept art. Hawkeye, Sharon Carter, Winter Soldier, War Machine, and Iron Man all have new costumes, while Ant-Man and Captain America both wear slightly tweaked versions of the costumes they wore in their last respective appearances. Falcon of course has the new outfit he wore at the end of Age of Ultron and his cameo in Ant-Man.

Black Panther will be trying to recover the Vibranium scraps left over in Sokovia from Ultron's anti-gravity device
  • Semi-confirmed, semi-Jossed. He's not there to recover the leftover vibranium, but the whole reason Wakanda gets involved at all is because of the use of their stolen vibranium.

The Winter Soldier killed T'Chaka some time before Age of Ultron.
Black Panther is getting involved to avenge his father. Klaue sent Bucky on a mission to assassinate T'Chaka to gain control of the vibranium mines, and once Bucky's location is revealed presumably at the beginning of the film T'Challa will enter the fray to avenge his father's death. T'Challa will also side with Iron Man early on as both of them have similar goals, and as a result he will come into conflict with Captain America, as some rumors suggest.
  • Confirmed. Zemo frames Bucky for the explosion that kills T'Chaka.

The movie will partially adapt the events of Red Zone.
Namely the plot point about biological weapons. It's also a story that heavily involved Iron Man, Black Panther, and Falcon. Furthermore, perhaps Zemo will gain his trademark burns from one of these bio-weapons and be forced to don his iconic mask at the end of the film.
  • Jossed. There is a minor plot point at the beginning about biological weapons, but it never comes up again.

Baron Zemo will be a Composite Character with Red Skull.
Since The Skull himself may not be coming back anytime soon, they'll give Zemo the role he had in Civil War and Red Zone.
  • Jossed.

Tony Stark will be Not Himself in one form or another.
Rather than have the Chaotic Good Breakout Character of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the only member of Marvel's "big three" to keep his identity in the latest comic reboot, pull a Face–Heel Turn right before the third Avengers movie, there will be an external justification for Tony's actions in this version of the Marvel Civil War. Possibilities include:
  • Tony is a Skrull.
  • Tony is the victim of mind control.
  • Tony is under the effect of one of the remaining infinity gems.
    • Jossed. The offical news release says it's guilt over the Ultron Incident.

Spider-Man will be in a Cheap Costume
He'll first appear as the Bombastic Bag-Man! Presumably with something other than a Fantastic Four costume involved. He will only get a more professional looking suit in his own movie. Maybe an updated Noir version. He will start off with a homemade costume and will get a new costume resembling his classic threads at the end of the movie.
  • Confirmed. We get to see his homemade costume briefly, and a few shots of him in action with it.

Christine Everheart Sally Floyd's role
She will give Cap the infamously controversial "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how out of touch he is with modern America. She's available for role because she exists in the MCU.
  • Jossed. She doesn't show up outside of the online marketing used to promote the movie.

Black Panther will be the one who defeats Zemo.
It seems the film may be partially adapting Red Zone, with Zemo taking the place of The Red Skull, so perhaps the scene where Panther savagely beats Red Skull will be adapted.
  • Semi-confirmed. T'Challa doesn't beat him up, he just restrains Zemo from shooting himself.

The conflict will be a case of Grey-and-Grey Morality, with neither side being entirely right or wrong.
Both sides will have good arguments, and both sides will make mistakes, so that the conflict will not be as clear-cut as it was in the comics, since there are fans of both arguments. In the end, some big drastic event (say, the death of Captain America) will stop the fighting and the two sides will end up working out a compromise together.
  • Confirmed.

Hope Van Dyne will appear as the Wasp
Kevin Feige has confirmed that there are plans for the Wasp to appear in future MCU movie, and has strongly hinted that she may be Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly's character) from Ant-Man. Hope could make her debut as the Wasp here, in at least a cameo capacity.
  • Jossed. Kevin Feige has said that he wants to save her becoming the Wasp for another movie, given that the film will have loads of characters as it is.

Carol Danvers will have a cameo
With Chadwick Boseman confirmed as Black Panther and Benedict Cumberbatch confirmed as Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel is presently the only Phase 3 solo hero without a confirmed actor. Marvel could give the character a cameo here, possibly in her secret identity as Carol Danvers.
  • Jossed.

One of The Stingers will be related to Avengers: Infinity War
In the same way the first stinger for The Winter Soldier was set-up for Age of Ultron.
  • Jossed.

Stark and Bucky will have a vicious knock-down drag out fight
If Hydra really did send Winter Soldier to kill Tony's parents, Tony could very well lash out and try to straight up kill Bucky for it. It's something not too far from the Hulkbuster sequence in Avengers Ageof Ultron... but this time, Winter Soldier gives the unbalanced and unfocused Iron Man a serious ass-kicking. That will be when Cap steps in, to calm the tension.
  • Confirmed.

There will be a friendship between Falcon and Ant-Man
Defeat Means Friendship will kick in after their fight in Ant Man's first movie.

Hank Pym will appear, and take Bill Foster's role as a Sacrificial Lion
He'll die in a You Shall Not Pass! moment by putting on the Ant-Man suit to hold off Iron Man's forces, with the strain on his body killing him in the process.
  • Jossed. He doesn't show up and he's fine, though he is mentioned.

Red Hulk will take Ragnarok's role in the story
"They cloned a God!" seems a little too out-there at this point in the MCU. Ross knocking back some gamma juice and super soldier serum is much more likely.
  • Jossed.

Zemo will be a case of Conflict Killer
He'll be a superhero known as Citizen V on the registration side, leading their cape buster unit known as the Thunderbolts. He'll grown increasingly more ruthless, kicking all the necessary dogs, and ultimately Tony will decide he's gone too far and join forces with Cap to stop him when he goes rogue.
  • Semi-confirmed. Tony joins forces with Cap briefly to stop Zemo, but soon ends up fighting Cap and Bucky. Meanwhile, Zemo is just an ordinary man rather than a supervillain.

The stinger will be Tony being introduced to the new head of the SRA
Tony will be told that like him, this man is a well loved captain of industry. One Norman Osborn.
  • Jossed.

Ultron's bodies will factor into the plot somehow
Tech from all those Ultron drones has got to be a pretty big deal on the black market. Tony would obsessively hunt each and every one of them while a chant of "my fault, my fault, my fault" goes on in his head.
  • Sort of, but not really. Wakanda breaks its isolation because of the stolen vibranium Ultron used, but his bodies are never mentioned.

Ideas for The Stinger:
  • Namor in Atlantis, talking to Dr. Strange about something. Or at least something featuring The Invaders.
  • Something involving Spidey.
  • A teaser for Ragnarok.
  • The Guardians of the Galaxy doing something.
    • Star-Lord crash lands on Earth, preferably in front of a significant hero or group, to inform them of an approaching problem.
  • Bucky in his new Captain America costume.
  • Something involving the Netflix heroes, sparking the idea of the Defenders.
  • Howard the Duck drinking in space for one minute, like the Food End after The Avengers.
  • Wolverine arrives at a now-abandoned battleground, claws out, announcing that he's finally been allowed to join the fight and that he's ready for action. He sees that nobody is there and leaves in rage. We pan up to see Spidey hanging off of a building, watching him. He says "I know that guy's pain." and swings away into the night.
  • Quicksilver making a surprise appearance, in a new costume that resembles his classic one. He will break the fourth wall by addressing the audience and cheerfully saying, "You didn't see that coming?"
  • Scott chatting with Hope, both in their new suits.
  • Steve and his pro-reg comrades (Bucky included) having a barbecue or otherwise relaxing, for once at peace and content, calling back to The Avengers shawarma stinger.
  • Inside the Daily Bugle, just after the final fight has ended, JJJ slamming his fist on the table during a meeting with all his staff (including Peter Parker, Betty Brant, Foswell and Ned) and yelling that while the war was really great for business, the Bugle really needs to focus on the greater threat, or, "THAT GODDAMN MENACE SPIDER-MAN!"
  • Scott Lang tries to steal something of import from the Sanctum Sanctorum (specifics to be determined). He gets his ass kicked by Wong only for a cloaked, mysterious, amused Dr. Strange to enter.
  • The government agent played by Martin Freeman gets a new assignment, and the folder they gave him has Dr Strange's photo on it.
    • Mixed. The two Stingers are Bucky being refrozen at a lab in a foggy Wakanda AND Spidey checking out the new gadgets given to him by Stark.

There'll be a Bait-and-Switch referencing the Death of Captain America
With little warning, Sharon will shoot Steve, only for it to be revealed a little later that it was staged for whatever reason.
  • Jossed.

HYDRA will be back. Again
Steve and company will react with Dull Surprise. Tony will quip along the lines of "Oh look, it's The Usual Adversaries".
  • Jossed. HYDRA's past actions do factor into the plot, but the organization itself is only present in flashbacks, and in the form of an ex-HYDRA agent who Zemo kills at the beginning of the movie.

In a twist, HYDRA will be nowhere/only passingly involved
  • Everyone will honestly be somewhat surprised that Zemo isn't involved with HYDRA or he'll dismiss Grant Ward and the newly-reformed HYDRA as upstarts or rookies.
  • He'll turn down working with HYDRA.
    • Confirmed. Zemo is the Big Bad, while HYDRA's only mentioned.

Spider-Man will have a fight scene with Black Panther
  • Allowing for all sorts of crazy stunts and moves, given that both are known for agility and acrobatics.
  • Alternatively, he'll fight Iron Man or Captain America, to the effect of "webslinging/flight" and martial arts.
    • Jossed. He remains firmly on Iron Man's side, but he does fight Cap.

There will be tremendous amounts of Scenery Gorn.
Like the comic, the superhero gang war will cause a lot of property damage and destruction, and the battle will end once Cap looks around and flashes back to how New York looked in the aftermath of the Chitauri assault, or a flashback to World War 2 in a bombed-out London, then realizes that all that damage was due to aliens or HYDRA-but now, it's because of his actions. He'll suffer a nasty Heroic BSoD and surrender.
  • Semi-confirmed. It does cause a lot of damage and it is pointed out by Ross, but there's no flashback.

Ross will become the Red Hulk
He will use a combination of Banner's blood and extremis. They leave out the serum Ross originally gave Blonsky/Abomination creating a less monstrous form and leaving him closer to Hulk in appearance and power, while the extremis makes him get hotter the angrier he gets instead of stronger.
  • Jossed; the Russos have said Red Hulk doesn't appear in the film.

Black Widow will be a double-agent.
Given how one could argue that a subplot of the Winter Soldier was about Cap and her learning to trust one another and how they are incredibly close friends, the idea that she is on Tony's side is hard to believe. The movie will reveal she's on his side secretly on Steve's orders.
  • Semi-confirmed. She buys Steve and Bucky time to escape on a Quinjet, but she doesn't relay info to Steve.

Hawkeye will be a double-agent
As considered earlier, Hawkeye has a lot to gain from being on Tony's side, particularly with regards to his wife and children. As Civil War is a battle of life vs ideals, Hawkeye has more lives than just his own to worry about. On top of that, there is still that Hawkeye vs Cap fight that was left out of Winter Soldier and could be Refitted for Sequel. His betrayal could possibly even lead to a Captain America defeat in the climax, considered Tony's side canonically won in the comics.
  • Jossed.

The Avengers will end up outlawed
The new status-quo will be that the Avengers won't be allowed to continue, though individually might be a different case. Such a development would explain why Superman Stays Out of Gotham for future movies, at least until such occasions when the Godzilla Threshold is reached in Infinity Wars.
  • Jossed. The Avengers are shattered by the film, but the individual members who sided against the Accords are still considered fugitives.

Cap's side will be a Dwindling Band
Both sides will start out even, but more and more Avengers will switch sides or get captured as time goes on, culminating in a Darkest Hour before Cap and his remaining allies turn things around.
  • Confirmed. Clint, Wanda, Sam and Scott all get locked up in the Raft until Steve rescues them at the end.

Hank Pym will not want anything to do with this whole debacle.
He's not going to want to support Tony's side since it was made clear in Ant-Man that he doesn't trust Stark or the Avengers in general. He won't protest Scott joining Cap's side, but he won't do anything to help him either.
  • Sort of? He doesn't show up at all and is only mentioned, so it's impossible to know what his stance on the matter was.

Sharon Carter and Black Widow will have a Designated Girl Fight.
One Pro-Reg girl vs one Anti-Reg girl. Just don't expect it to last very long.
  • No such fight takes place int he movie. It was either cut or a case of Lying Creator, although there is a scene where Sharon Carter and Black Widow fight together against the Winter Soldier.

Scarlet Witch will be held captive by the US government for most of the film.
  • Thus explaining her absence from the promo art of both the Pro and Anti Reg teams. She will be freed in the third act when the Anti-Reg side attacks the Pro-Reg side's base. Her losing control of her powers may be the event that kickstarts the whole ordeal in the first place and thus why she's imprisoned. This in turn could lead to Iron Man using this to convince the Vision to be on his side under the pretense of it being to help Wanda cope with her powers and everything being for the greater good of the world.
  • In the latest interview with Olsen (highlights translated to English here), the fact she only filmed for 5 weeks and states that Wanda is going 'insane with her power' holds true to this theory, and this popular fan theory first posted when leaked promo images did not show the Scarlet Witch in any team line-up.
  • Alternatively she may be facing the consequences of siding with Ultron.
    • Semi-confirmed. She gets held in the Raft, but only in the second half of the film. Prior to that she's briefly placed under house-arrest.

Ant-Man will meet Spider-Man.
They are both snarky bug themed heroes closely associated with science. Ant-Man will follow the leads he got at the end of his movie and either fight or make friends with Peter.
  • Confirmed. They fight and Spidey brings down Scott when he becomes Giant-Man.

J. Jonah Jameson will appear.
He will either side with Stark or use the Civil War as an example of how dangerous superheroes are. He will be played by J. K. Simmons and it will be glorious.
  • Jossed, sadly.
    • Confirmed however for Far From Home.

The war will truly be between Captain America Vs. Black Widow.
Since these two are still part of the Avengers, their differences is what will actually divide the group and after fighting with Captain America she will find support in Iron Man and become a new team which will be lead by Tony.
  • Jossed. It's ultimately between Cap and Tony.

Black Widow will fill Spider-Man's role from the original storyline.
She'll side with Iron Man in order to be a part of something like S.H.I.E.L.D. again as she thinks it can do the most good and to continue repenting for her past. Her relationships with Hawkeye and Cap will cause her a great deal of guilt and she'll eventually betray Tony and switch sides.
  • Semi-confirmed. She never outright switches sides like Spider-Man did, but she does purposefully prevent Black Panther from killing Bucky. This causes her to bow out of the conflict altogether, and she essentially disappears from the plot.

Peter will be an Ascended Fanboy
In this continuity, Peter will be partially inspired to become Spider-Man by the Avengers. Peter will be very excited to work alongside his heroes and will try to prove that he would make a good Avenger. As the Superhero Registration Act begins to split the team apart, Peter will become disillusioned by the actions of his idols and resolves to remain a solo hero. This will explain Superman Stays Out of Gotham issues for his own movies.
  • Semi-confirmed. He's constantly fanboying during the airport fight, but he gets sent home afterwards.

Black Panther is the double agent
Black Widow is way too obvious, and Stark would see it coming anyway since according to the first Avengers movie, he doesn't trust her after the crap she pulled in Iron Man 2. Meanwhile, Black Panther is seen with Iron Man's team in the promo art despite both Kevin Feige and Chadwick Boseman saying that he would be neutral and have his own agenda. It would make sense (and be in-character given Panther's Chessmaster tendencies in the comics) that he would manipulate Iron Man and then abandon him once he feels Stark's Avengers have served their purpose. It would be more shocking to the mainstream audience than having Black Widow be the traitor.
  • Jossed. Though he does have a Heel Realization at the end of the movie, and ends up helping out Cap and Bucky to make amends.

Spider-Man will fight a hero but remain neutral
Since his role isn't expected to be that big, he could encounter Captain America or Iron Man for some reason, fight them, but then ultimately choose to stay out of the conflict.
  • Confirmed. After the airport fight, Stark sends Peter home.

Ant-Man and Hawkeye will recreate this iconic moment.
It could allow Ant-Man to sabotage Iron Man or War Machine's armors (much like how he escaped the Falcon by sabotaging his suit). Or if Giant Man is around, then the two can perform their Tag Team Special.
  • Confirmed as of trailer 2!

Wanda will be the ace-in-the-hole against Vision
Whatever drives the wedge between the Avengers team established at the end of Age of Ultron, Wanda will sit out most of the movie, either because she's already felt used by manipulative types before (Strucker), or other reasons. Eventually, she'll be the one to stand against powerhouse Vision, on both a physical and emotional level, maybe even delivering a Cooldown Hug.
  • Semi-confirmed. She fights Vision, but she doesn't sit out most of the movie.

Cap's team will need scientific help
They used to rely on Tony Stark for it, but now he's not available for them. In fact, he's against them, so they need another scientific genius capable to counter Stark. So, Ant-Man will point that "I know someone..." (Henry Pym). Or, better yet, the Falcon will point that "I know someone who knows someone..."
  • Semi-confirmed. It's possible that they needed his tech expertise, but we don't really know since he's captured immediately after the big airport brawl.

Cap's team will need electrical engineering help.
The Stinger from Ant-Man implies as much, probably to repair or reprogram Bucky's prosthetic arm. (That's the one thing Sam knows for sure Scott has the skill to work with, having had his own prosthetic wings disabled from within by the mini-hero.) It's likely that Bucky's arm was clamped in that vise because it was dangerously malfunctioning, or - even worse - because HYDRA implanted it with a suicide command to make it strangle Bucky if the Winter Soldier ever broke free of his conditioning. As soon as Bucky exposes himself in the early events of Civil War, HYDRA will realize he didn't die when their helicarriers crashed and will activate the kill-command, forcing the tech-ignorant Rogers to immobilize the arm as best he can, then ask Falcon to recommend a new electronics expert who can save his old friend from his own artificial limb.

So Hank Pym can stay out of this one, as Scott himself is up to the task of entering Bucky's arm, fixing what's broken there, and disabling the suicide program without help: a good way for the most lighthearted MCU hero yet to sustain his credibility as an Avenger-caliber problem-solver.

  • Jossed.
    • Actually, one of the first things Lang does in the airport battle is shrink down into Tony's suit and screw with his weapons systems, so at least semi-confirmed.

Hawkeye will pull a Hold the Line
Given the above theories about Hawkeye's family and Renner's confirmation that this film will show more of Clint, its likely Clint will have a very personal reason for his choice to side against the Pro-Reg side. At some point, the severely underpowered Anti-Reg side will be cornered, and Hawkeye will opt to stay back and cover their escape, giving them a chance to showcase his effectiveness against the Flying Brick characters on the Pro-Reg side. He'll probably survive but be captured and detained until the end.
  • Confirmed. He's part of the distraction to prevent the Pro-Accords side from capturing Cap and Bucky and ends up in the Raft with the others.

The film is really a hybrid adaptation of both Civil War and Avengers Diassembled.
The latest reveal by Olsen that Wanda will begin to go crazy from her powers is exactly what happened in Avengers Disassembled. The result of that event was that 3 Avengers died (namely Hawkeye, Scott Lang's Ant-Man, and The Vision) and the Avengers disbanded (for a while). The Avengers in the film splitting into two factions may be because of what Wanda does in the beginning of the film as well. Just how much will be adapted from Avengers Disassembled (namely the fatalities) remains to be seen.
  • Scott Lang's death has been jossed by virtue of Ant-Man getting a sequel.
  • Jossed in general. Wanda makes a bad mistake that causes civilian casualties, but it's because of her lack of experience, not because she's insane or being corrupted by her powers.

The film will end with a Downer Ending
The Anti-Reg side will lose and each one will be forced to go their separate ways. Possible ideas :
  • Steve will ultimately surrender to end the bloodshed, and possibly be assassinated by Brock Rumlow (who faked his death earlier in the film); he may survive but be left in a coma with no hope of coming out of it, in order to keep things open for his return in Infinity War.
    • Semi-confirmed. Steve doesn't die, but goes into hiding in Wakanda.
  • Hawkeye will fake his death, in order to protect his family from further harassment; he'll live discreetly in Brooklyn, maybe with a Dog named Lucky, leading to possible set-up for a Hawkeye solo based on Fraction's run.
    • Semi-confirmed: He goes on the run, but doesn't fake his death.
  • Falcon will surrender and be forced to register as part of a deal to protect others.
    • Jossed: He's taken out by Iron Man, but soon goes on the run.
  • Sharon will surrender but realize she's pregnant with Steve's child (as she did in the comics), possibly ending up in the custody of Baron Zemo or Red Skull's people.
    • Jossed.
  • Bucky will end up on the run, and attempt to assassinate Tony Stark; he'll fail, but will be asked if he wants to continue Steve's legacy as Captain America.
    • Semi-confirmed. Bucky does attempt to kill Tony under Zemo's control, but goes into stasis in Wakanda at the end so they can try and remove his brainwashing.
The Pro-reg side won't be much better off, despite winning.
  • The Vision, after spending time getting Ship Tease with her, will ultimately not get together with Wanda, due to his choice of sides in the film, making him feel inhuman.
    • Confirmed.
  • Widow will remain part of Tony Stark's cabal, but is now wrecked with guilt over betraying her closest friends; as a plus, she gets assigned to take care of Bucky.
    • Jossed. She ends up as a fugitive after helping Bucky escape from Black Panther, and disappears to parts unknown.
  • Rhodey will be injured during the film and be forced to retire for now, unable to continue being War Machine, but with the offer of taking upgrades along the lines of the Greg Pak run, or possibly being reassigned to a different devision, where he meets Carol Danvers.
    • Confirmed. He's paralyzed from his crash and Tony is helping him recover.
  • Tony himself will be put in charge of the SHRA, but like Widow he's wrecked with guilt over betraying his friends and possibly causing Steve and Hawkeye's deaths. Unlike Widow, though, he has no plus in the situation; he ends up alone, with no idea what he's going to do now.
    • Semi-confirmed. He isn't put in charge, Steve and Clint are alive and it isn't clear on how much guilt he feels, but he's all alone.
  • T'Challa will probably be the best off, returning to Wakanda to reclaim his place as King after his father's death, leading into his film.
    • Confirmed. He's hiding Bucky and Steve there.

Ant-Man will rob burgle the Pro-Reg side.
With shrinking tech, a legion of ants and experience breaking into facilities, Scott is the Anti-Reg best infiltrator. He can steal intel, technology of any size and even spy for information from the Pro-Reg side. This will be crucial, as Scott will be the first one to discover their main plan...
  • Jossed.

Spider-Man's role in the Film
  1. Spider-Man is an obscure hero in-universe, due to him being secret, unlike the likes of Iron Man or Captain America. One of the goals of the Pro Regs will be to track down these private heroes and enlist them in the new government agency for super heroes that is overseen by Martin Freeman's character. Spidey is originally interested in joining, but forgoes the idea when the agency begins taking measures that Spidey sees are wrong. Because of this, he is branded a traitor and the Pro Regs are sent to deal with him, forcing Spidey to spend the rest of the movie fighting them off. He is later seen during the climax of the film fighting HYDRA with his fellow super-heroes.
  2. Spidey will appear in a scene of how the Reg enforcers track down supers, deftly eluding capture so his Secret Identity can still be a secret - and preserving it, a cause for concern - in his movie. He won't take sides or team up with either faction, being too busy keeping his head down.
  3. He will not be crime-fighter yet, if he's already acquired his powers but Uncle Ben is still alive and Peter's just using his abilities to make money as an anonymous masked wrestler. The fact that he's performing impossible-seeming moves in the ring would get the Reg enforcers' attention, nevertheless, so when they try to force "The Amazing Spider-Man" to take off his mask and be registered, that'll demonstrate that the Accords aren't just about vigilantism, but about controlling everybody with powers, even those who are only trying to make an honest living.
  • Jossed. Tony recruits him to help out.

Ant-Man and the Avengers will initially be Working the Same Case
Since Scott is likely still trying to find Carson after he stole a vial of Pym Particles for HYDRA at the end of Ant-Man, that may be how he gets involved with the Avengers' own conflict with HYDRA.
  • Jossed. He only gets involved because Falcon specifically has Hawkeye bring him to Germany.

Black Panther will fight Captain America
He'll end up scratching his shield.
  • Confirmed.

HYDRA will be revealed to be taking advantage of the Superhero Registration Act
They will consider it the perfect opportunity to get information about each member of the Avengers, and use that information to be able to create a method of defeating each individual member. There might even be undercover HYDRA members posing as pro-reg supporters.
  • Jossed.

The Stamford incident will occur in an episode of Agents of SHIELD.
The Stamford explosion will happen in SHIELD, and the beginning of Civil War will feature the Avengers at the site of the explosion, looking for survivors.
  • Jossed. The catalyst is not a Stamford incident, but a battle between the Avengers and some mercenaries that results in civilian casualties.

As a twist, Captain America won't die, but will instead become Nomad.
If The Superhero Registration Act gets passed, it will shatter the Captain's view of America. This will cause him to publicly denounce America as his country of origin, refuse to register himself, and take up the mantle of Nomad.
  • Jossed. He does survive, but there's nothing to indicate the conflict has destroyed his view of America.

The first trailer only showed clips from the first half of the movie.
They are saving characters like Spider-man, Ant-man, Baron Zemo, Red Hulk and whoever plays Martin Freeman for the second trailer. Alternatively, those characters aren't there because the required special effects shots aren't finished. Red Hulk might not even be in the movie at all.
  • Jossed.

Vision could remove himself from the conflict at some point
Much like how The Sentry left Earth to avoid fighting in the original comic, Vision might get sick of the conflict and remove himself at some point.
  • Semi-confirmed. He does sit the final battle out, but not of his own free will. Falcon makes Stark promise not to bring Vision with him when he goes after Steve and Bucky in Siberia.

Spider-Man will get his costume from one of the existing heroes
Feige has said Spider-Man is operating in a homemade costume at the start of his career. Iron Man or one of the other Avengers may provide him with a more professional-looking costume, much like how Iron Man gave the entire team new costumes in Age of Ultron.
  • Confirmed. Tony makes a new one for him.

Thor's absence will be mentioned somehow
He left to find some info on who was behind the Infinity Stone conspiracy. Assuming the movie takes place in 2016, he'd have been gone an awful long time...
  • Confirmed.

The events of Agents of SHIELD will be at least referenced in a Continuity Nod
It's unlikely Coulson or his team will actually appear, but the season-long plot about The Inhumans may warrant at least a mention in a film about controlling superhumans.
  • Jossed, unfortunately.
    • But not the other way around.

The film will end with the formation of yet another new Avengers line-up
This third version of the Avengers will be branded fugitives and outlaws. This will keep them from operating openly like the previous two teams, and they'll lack the financial and technological resources of the original team.
  • Jossed. Thanks to Zemo, the Avengers are broken up in the end.

The "civil war" part of the film will be over by the start of the third act
Zemo is confirmed to be the Big Bad, and much of the film's second act is set in Germany. Expect the Team Cap and Team Stark big fight to be the second act, with the Steve and Bucky vs. Tony fight to be the start of the third, before the former two go to deal with the real threat of the film.
  • Confirmed ish It does seem to head this way, with Tony and Steve joining up. However, the film does end with a Cap and Bucky vs Tony battle after Tony learns that Bucky killed his parents.

Zemo is using the Sokovia Accords against the world
The Sokovia Accords seem similar to NATO's Article V, requiring signees to respond in full should anything happen. Zemo is likely trying to cause an incident that will set the signees against the Avengers. It's an inverse of the Winter Soldier plot; instead of the system being evil from the inside and hunting down the good guys to cover up the plot, the system will be good, but easily manipulated by the Big Bad.
  • Jossed. While Zemo uses the conflict caused by the Accords to tear the Avengers apart, he never actually uses the laws themselves to force them to do anything.

Zemo is hiding out in the Red Skull's old lair
The Iron Man vs. Cap and Bucky fight is in a dilapidated concrete room with larger vertical columns, with open air showing snowy mountains in the distance. The Red Skull had such a lair, and the windows between those columns were broken during the storming of his base. Bet you that Big Bad Zemo is using the abandoned base as his own, and will also use it to psychologically taunt Steve during the climax.
  • Semi confirmed, semi Jossed. Zemo taunts Steve there, but he only shows up to confront them, not using it as a base. The base was also a separate HYDRA facility in Siberia, not the Red Skull's base in the Swiss Alps.

Much as how The Winter Soldier took a lot of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid 1-4, Civil War will have some elements in common with The Phantom Pain.
Granted given that the game released after the film finished shooting, it will all be a mere coincidence. It's known that there an Institute of Infection Disease, and Baron Zemo will have been revealed to be the Big Bad. It's possible the conflict over the Sokovia Accords will be a smokescreen for Zemo's master plan, which would involve infecting people around the world with some sort of deadly parasite which Cap and his allies must team up to stop from dispersing. Said infection may have some sort of Well-Intentioned Extremist rationale behind it, such as to prevent overpopulation or scare the world into uniting against a common enemy, or may be done for a more sinister reason.

Also, Zemo secreted turned Bucky into a vector for the parasite, and framed so that his eventual capture/death will act as an unwitting trigger for it onto hard-to-reach persons such as Captain America.

  • Semi-confirmed. It's not inspired by it, but both have similar elements-namely, Zemo's master plan being a big enough threat which makes Cap and Tony briefly team up, framing Bucky, brainwashing and the use of language to turn someone into a killing machine.

Bucky will turn himself in at the end
Taking Cap's place from the comic to end the Civil War.
  • Semi confirmed. He goes back into stasis in Wakanda, until they can remove his brainwashing.

Zemo will end up being a Composite Character of some sort
Given the similarities, he may become the MCU equivalent of Doctor Doom. While not confirmed what they mean, the directors and actor both said he is very different than his comic counterpart.
  • Jossed. He is nothing like Doom whatsoever.

Captain America will wield Mjolnir
Thor will appear but, during the final battle, Mjolnir will be knocked off the God of Thunder and Cap will pick it up. After the battle, Tony will shout "my turn" and try to lift Mjolnir, only to learn the restrictions are still on. He'll say there must be some minimum age requirement and accuse Steve of recently reaching it. The executives owe the fans something like that after Cap not being able to wield Mjolnir in Age of Ultron.
  • Jossed, which should be rather obvious. Neither Thor nor Mjolnir appear in the movie.

The Avengers will stop Zemo's immediate plans and cause his facial scarring, but Zemo will still be at large and popular with the public by the end of the film and Cap will be assassinated by Hydra.
  • Semi-confirmed. Zemo is arrested, but he has already split the Avengers in half.

King T'Chaka will be injured in an incident involving Cap's Avengers
This will give T'Challa motivation to join the pro-reg side, and will explain why he is the Black Panther if his father is still alive.
  • Semi-confirmed. He is actually killed in the UN bombing. But it still motivates T'Challa to get involved in the dispute.

There will be a nod to The Consultant
This is the second time Tony and Ross will be in the same film together, so naturally there will be a reference to their meeting at the end of The Incredible Hulk. This will shed more light on the exact details on the confrontation between the two of them, as well as get viewers who have not watched the short up to speed.
  • Jossed.

The character Tom Holland is playing is Ben Reilly, not Peter Parker
This one's more of a Spider-Man WMG, but here goes. During the film, the real Peter Parker is elsewhere and Reilly, as in the comics, believes himself to be the real Peter. He learns the truth either at the end (Or The Stinger) of this film, or in the solo Spider-Man film, when Andrew Garfield reveals himself as the real Parker.
  • Jossed. Andrew Garfield has said that he's not coming back, and Sony abandoned the TASM setting for a reason.
    • Oddly enough, despite Garfield not returning as Spider-Man for the MCU, he returned as his version of the hero in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The "modern twist" to Baron Zemo
It's been said that the character won't be wearing his iconic mask in the film, but what if that's a half-truth? What if he's wearing the same high-tech holographic mask Black Widow wore in The Winter Soldier in order to impersonate other characters? This would not only let him set events in motion by impersonating Bucky, it would allow him to aggravate the conflict by posing as members of both the pro- and anti-registration sides. The "traditional" look to the character could be glimpsed when the hologram changes from one face to another, or when the mask is turned off or damaged.
  • Semi-confirmed. He uses a facial prosthetic to imitate Bucky, but doesn't get an actual mask.

At the end of the film, Black Panther will realize the Avengers aren't as bad as he thought
Foreshadowing his eventual involvement with the team in Infinity War.
  • Semi-confirmed. He agrees to help Cap and Bucky hide in Wakanda.

Giant-Man will appear
Stark's team utterly dwarfs Steve's in terms of strength. Scott will become Giant-Man to add some much needed raw power to the team, allowing him to actually stand a chance against Iron Man and War Machine. He'll do so by using the enlarging discs to increase his size, like he did to escape the quantum realm.
  • Confirmed.

The reason that Baron Zemo won't wear his mask is because he'll be using his Citizen V persona instead
  • Jossed. Given they've said the character is on purpose far removed from the comics, it seems incredibly unlikely he'd be in his Thunderbolts disguise. It seems very likely he won't even have the background needed to even do the Thunderbolts story.

Red Hulk is the true Big Bad of the film
As the two teams are tearing each other apart, Ross will appear and reveal his true intentions and reveals that he can transform into a Red Hulk. Immediately, the two teams stop fighting and band together to take down this oncoming threat
  • Jossed. Zemo is the big bad, and Ross never Hulks out (or indeed gives any indication that he has Hulk abilities or is seeking to gain them somehow).

Alternately, General Ross' absence all this time was due to Red Hulk shenanigans.
It's revealed that something happened to Betty, and while Thunderbolt Ross refined the Abomination serum into a cure, he got the idea to test it on himself since his and Betty's DNA are similar. Then he gets the idea it's safe to use on her, before shit happens. All brought up so he can blame it all on Banner, of course.
  • Jossed. Once again, there is no Red Hulk.

A lot of supporting characters will get Written In Absences
  • Surprisingly Jossed. A lot of characters connected to the various heroes don't appear (Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Dr. Selvig, Helen Cho, Hank Pym, Happy Hogan, Hope Van Dyne, Scott's heist crew, ect.), but the only ones whose absences are really acknowledged are Thor, Hulk and Pepper Potts.

Some characters who are not yet confirmed to appear will still show up in some capacity
Sam Jackson said a while Nick Fury likely isn't in the movie, but Anthony Mackie said the same thing about Falcon not being in Age of Ultron. It's not a stretch to think Nick Fury and/or Maria Hill might have a cameo, possibly along with some of the other supporting character who were shown running the New Avengers Compound.
  • Jossed. They don't.

Something is rotten at the heart of the Registration Act.
Its main proponent and enforcer appears to be Thunderbolt Ross. This guy wrote the book on "The ends justify the means."
  • Jossed. There may be something revealed in future movies, but in the film itself, the Accords are a legitimate set of laws with no subterfuge or ulterior motives as of yet.

Zemo will survive the film and be set up to become a greater threat down the line
Zemo has gotten very little press so far and most of the previews and marketing have focused on the two teams of Avengers clashing. If the bulk of the movie is mostly about the heroes fighting each other, Zemo could have a comparatively minor role, with plans to have it expand in a future movie. For instance, could be defeated, but be shown to have survived in The Stinger.
  • Confirmed. In a rare twist for an MCU villain, a hero (Black Panther) actually prevents the death of the villain. Zemo is last seen imprisoned and gloating about his victory.

The movie will begin staging the groundwork for the Masters of Evil
Or at least foreshadow their eventual arrival in the MCU. While MCU Zemo is apparently not going to be like Comics Zemo, he's been stated as a recurring villain. So it would make most sense he will be gathering a Masters of Evil team for a future movie.
  • Possibly. Zemo survives, and makes it clear he loathes the Avengers and will stop at nothing to destroy them.

The end of the movie will lead into Avengers: Infinity War, much like Winter Soldier led into Age of Ultron
The film could end with the team utterly shattered and unwilling to work together, leaving things open for Thanos to strike. This could also serve to explain why the Avengers (other than Hulk) likely won't be in Thor: Ragnarok. There will be no Avengers anymore, meaning that Thor will have no one else to turn to for help when Ragnarok happens.
  • Confirmed.

Black Widow will switch weapons to avoid seriously hurting her friends
She's been depicted in promos and merchandise wielding both her electric batons from Age of Ultron and a pair of regular tonfas. She'll start off using her batons in the film but switch to the tonfas as a less dangerous alternative once she ends up fighting her former teammates.
  • Semi-confirmed. It's never really acknowledged why, but she's ditched her electric batons for the tonfas.

At one point, there will be a reference to Betty Ross and the events of The Incredible Hulk.
You have Thunderbolt Ross in that movie. At one point, someone (likely Tony) will ask Ross "Hey Thaddeus, how's your daughter?".
  • Jossed.

Sharon Carter has a much smaller role than people are anticipating
The leaked early marketing art showed Sharon fighting alongside Cap's Avengers in place of Scarlet Witch, and she also appears on some of the officially released art and packaging as well, leading many to believe that she is a major part of the movie and a key player on Team Cap . Despite this, she only appears for a split second in the first trailer, is completely absent from the big Super Bowl TV spot, doesn't appear to be present at the big airport showdown, and wasn't even included in the emoticon promotion Marvel ran for the movie on Twitter. Does that soundthe type of marketing Disney and Marvel would do for someone who is supposedly a main character?
  • It's possible that she only replaced Scarlet Witch on the marketing and promo images because of licensing complications, as Scarlet Witch's film rights are shared between Marvel and Fox.
  • Confirmed. She does play a pivotal role in recovering Cap and Falcon's confiscated gear, but she immediately drops out of the plot as soon as that scene ends. She's not present at all for the big airport showdown, and never even dons the uniform she's seen wearing in the promo art and merchandising.

Hawkeye is Anti-Registration because he wants to help Bucky
Clint will have a lot of empathy for Bucky since the two of them were previously brainwashed and forced to kill innocent people. Clint knows firsthand what that feels like, so he has good reason to help Bucky once the Registration Act starts gaining ground.
  • Jossed. He's Anti-Accords because he feels he owes a debt to the deceased Quicksilver.

Everett Ross is related to "Thunderbolt" Ross
The identical surnames will have a reason behind them; possibly Everett is Thaddeus' son, and since Thaddeus is solidly pro-registration while Everett is typically a good ally of Black Panther, there will be a father-versus-son dynamic over the Super Registration Act. This in turn would complement or contrast the former-friends dynamic between Rogers and Stark.
  • Nothing is said either way.

Crossbones is the true Big Bad of the movie.
The prelude Infinite Comic shows him going off on his own and in what appears to be the lead up to his first fight with the New Avengers, it does not look like he is following any orders. He orchestrates the villain plot of the movie by himself without answering to anyone like Pierce in the last movie or Zemo like everyone is expecting, he could be leading Hydra remnants.
  • Jossed. Crossbones is in only one scene and gets blown up.

The Underwater Base seen in the trailer is The Raft from the comics
  • Confirmed. It is the raft.

Spider-Man's Expressive Mask is, in a meta sense, a case of Follow the Leader
It worked for a certain Merc with the Mouth (albeit not without its accusations of Unintentional Uncanny Valley), so why not try it with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Hell, the fact that his expressive mask is mechanical in nature rather than unexplained may be an attempt to avert the uncanny valley of Deadpool (who was less concerned with this anyway because it was funny.)
  • This seems to be the case.

Spider-Man's eyes are mechanically augmented.
When they narrow in the trailer, a slight whirring noise can be heard. Peter may have designed them like actual camera lenses that help him focus on specific things in the heat of battle - something pretty useful for somebody who swings around a lot. The reason they move in conjunction to how his own eyes would is because he synced them with his face's muscle movements.
  • It's more like that the costume seen in the trailer was a gift from Tony for signing up with his crew (which is basically what the red and gold "Iron Spider" costume was in the comics). Peter is a broke high school student, even if he could develop the technology for the "spidey shutters" his mask seems to employ he doesn't have the means to build it.

This film will mark the fall of Public Superheroes and the Rise of "Street Level" heroes.
Let's assume for a moment that the film will have a similar ending to the comics. The Pro-Accord side wins, but Captain America dies, with Spider-Man ditching Stark for the Anti-Accords. This will cause the general public to become so disgusted with Iron Man that it leads to his team of Avengers receiving a 0% Approval Rating, causing many superhumans to become to afraid to Register or Reveal themselves. Eventually, "Street Level" Superheroes Such as Daredevil (2015), Luke Cage (2016), Iron Fist, Ant-Man, and Cap's teammates will become Robin Hood-esque figures in the MCU. The fallout of this populatity shift will be dealt with in the Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel movies, before the studio moves on to Infinity War.
  • Jossed.

Carol Danvers will appear as more than a cameo which will set up her solo movie
Given her appearance in the Civil War II comics it would make sense to establish her more for film audiences. Some ideas include:
  • Joining Iron Man's side makes sense as she does have a history of government cooperation and could serve as a government liaison for the Accords. Tony tampering with alien tech to gain an edge might be the source of her powers.
  • Joining Captain America's side as he joins her in the Civil War II event so as to create stability for the character. She could either be sympathetic to his side from the beginning or could defect from Tony after he starts practicing extreme measures or after she gains her powers.
    • Jossed.

The Spider that bit Peter was created by Stark Industries.
In a deconstruction of the original story, the scientists that created the genetically modified Spiders noticed that one of their enhanced arachnids bit one of their visitors by watching the video feed. After hearing news of a Web-Slinging hero running around New York, Tony put two and two together and tracked down Peter using his new resources. Of course, Tony won't force Peter to reveal himself to the public, and in the end, when all is said and done, Tony will regret everything he has done during the film, and begin working on redeeming himself by deleting all of the information on all of the superheroes beside himself in an adaptation of the scene from Dark Reign.
  • Jossed. Tony tracks down Peter but never mentions it having anything to do with Stark Industries.

Tony will have a My God, What Have I Done? moment when Captain America dies (if he dies)
Similar to the comics, when Captain America got arrested and is awaiting trail, he will ask Tony if all of this is worth it. Tony probably gives him a vague answer or doesn't answer at all. After Cap dies, Tony would look over his body in the morgue and grieves for him which ends him saying "Was it worth it?"
  • Jossed. Cap doesn't die.

At one point, Steve reveals his mother's name is Sarah and tony reveals his mother's name is Maria.
And that will be how the Civil War ends.
  • Jossed.

Tony will gradually lose all his allies throughout the movie
As he makes increasingly questionable decisions the members of his team will start seeing Tony lose sight of why they are fighting in favor of continuing his grudge match with Steve. They will start leaving one by one as goes to further and further lengths until eventually even Vision leaves his side, at which point Tony will realize how far he has fallen. One moment would be a Lack of Empathy towards Bucky's brainwashing by HYDRA, which his callous disregard of will cause Widow to leave his side.
  • Partially confirmed. Black Widow does switch sides during the airport battle and allows Steve and Bucky to escape in the Quinjet. She herself leaves shortly after Tony calls her out for this. Rhodes ends up paralyzed thanks to Vision's friendly fire. T'Challa switches to Steve's side once he realizes that it was Zemo and not Bucky who killed T'Chaka. By the end of the film, Tony ends up with Vision, a handicapped Rhodes, and Peter Parker still in his corner.

At one point Tony will be watching footage of other heroes in action
It would be a good way to show the Netflix heroes and possibly Inhuman characters in action or possibly characters unseen in the MCU so far, like Captain Marvel.
  • Semi-confirmed. There's footage of Spider Man in action. There is no footage (or even mention) of the Inhumans or the Netflix heroes.

Cap is wrong.
The ending has Captain America accept that sometimes, even he is fallible, even his morals might not be correct 100% of the time, as the big shift in his character, and ends with Bucky put on trial, accepting that he isn't above the law. Just as The Winter Soldier showed Cap about how the world has changed, Civil War will revolve around him realizing he isn't always right.
  • Jossed. The movie does a nice job of keeping things ambiguous about who was truly correct.

The Pro-Accords have a spy who is relaying information to either Cap or another front.
Let's look at the possibilities:
  • Iron Man: He's out. Not only is he the leader of the team, but the Pro-Accord front as a whole.
  • War Machine: Unlikely, as he is Tony's best friend and a government agent. He's also has the disadvantage of a (most likely) Disney Death to prevent him from being involved.
  • Vision: Also unlikely, as he, like Rhodes, has a personal connection to Tony and won't leave his side easily.
  • Black Widow: Possible. Given her history with corrupt governments and friendship with Steve and Clint, it's not unlikely that she would be sympathetic to the Anti-Accords. The one problem with this is that it would be so obvious that everyone (including the characters in-universe) would suspect her.
  • Black Panther: Also possible. He seems to have an ulterior motive, so it's possible that he is relaying information to someone who he is working with (most likely his father) in order to achieve his goals.
  • Spider-Man: Doubtful. He seems to be just a kid that Tony found using his resources. Peter is more likely to emulate the comics and be more of a traditional turncoat rather than a spy.
    • Jossed. Sharon Carter is a mole for the Anti-Accords side, but she has nothing to do with Team Iron Man at all.

    Post-release theories 

Stark's memory modification method he introduced at MIT will eventually help remove Bucky's programming.
He went to some length explaining how it can be used to change experiences and deal with painful memories. What better to use to remove those bothersome HYDRA command codes?
  • Jossed. Bucky programming is removed by the Wakandans and the memory technology only comes up in Far From Home.

Steve put the Avengers in Tony's hands at the end, but at this point, all heroes are fugitives, crippled, off world, in Parts Unknown, or simply want nothing to do with him. It's unlikely he would be able to put a team together in the meantime. Once Thanos rears his ugly head, they will need to gather a team on the fly, which would probably take up a large chunk of the first act.
  • Jossed. Steve and Tony never meet in Infinity War.

Wanda will eventually refine her powers enough to remove Bucky's programming.
She's shown to have a degree of telepathy, if short lasting and limited. Once he learns to use her powers better, she'll fix Bucky. Alternately, Vision will learn enough about the Mind Stone to use it to fix Bucky himself.
  • Jossed. Bucky's programming is removed by the Wakandans.

Wanda will seek Dr. Strange for help with her powers after or during the events of his movie.
Branching off of the above theory, she may go to him for assistance on removing Bucky's brainwashing program, or simply to improve and better control her powers.
  • Jossed. However, they are set to team up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Captain America will adopt the Nomad identity
In the comics, Steve gave up the Captain America identity and the shield for a time and became the hero Nomad. He seems to be in a similar position now.
  • Jossed. Though he becomes nomadic, he doesn't take the name.

A subplot in a future MCU movie will deal with Rhodes recovering and donning the War Machine armor again
It will take time, but also thanks to willpower and dedication, Rhodey will become able to walk on his own again, with no need of harnesses or any other assistance. However, the trauma of the crash and spinal injury has left him with an instinctive, crippling fear of the armor (he may even be uncomfortable just seeing Tony in the Iron Man one), so his next challenge will be overcoming this phobia. Since something similar happened to Rhodey in the 1990s cartoon (after almost drowning while in the armor, it took long for him to be comfortable in using it again), a reference to it wouldn't be surprising.
  • Jossed. In Infinity War, he dons the armor without any fuss.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tony will use the memory modification on himself
In a parallel to what happened in the original Civl War comic, at some point Peter will be having second thoughts and won't be too happy about the registration act, and the general idea of becoming a government-controlled superhero under Tony's tutelage. Differently from his reaction in the comic, however, although heartbroken (the events of Civil War - the movie - have already had a big toll on him) Tony not only will let the boy go, but also erase the knowledge of Spidey's identity from his own mind to better protect him.
  • Jossed. It doesn't come up in that film.

Tony will fall to alcoholism
The Iron Man movies ended up not dealing with that important arc of the character's history in the comics, although both the second and third had references and parallels to it. The events of Civil War, however, arguably mark the lowest point in Tony's life, one where nobody would be surprised if he took refuge in the bottle.
  • Jossed.

The Infinity Stones will be used to Set Right What Once Went Wrong
The Avengers, Dr. Strange, or someone else will use the Time Stone to reverse the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and/or Captain America: Civil War along with any other events that would contribute to the Infinity Wars. Either that or Wanda herself will get her hands on the Reality Stone and give us the MCU's version of House of M.
  • Jossed. Thanos destroys the stones in Endgame.

Phase 4 will have Zemo summoning the Avengers' biggest enemies.
In the comics, Zemo created a team of the Avengers' worst villains, called the Masters of Evil. He could use his information to gather a team of villains from previous Avengers movies (Batroc, Abomination, Klaw, and whatever villains are present throughout the phase) to kill them. The stinger for each movie could feature him recruiting another villain until the fifth Avengers movie. It will be similar to how Nick Fury was gathering the Avengers in Phase One. It could even adapt the Acts of Vengeance story arc. If it's not Zemo, since this version of him was so satisfied with his revenge that he tried to kill himself, then it will be someone else.
  • Jossed for Klaue, as he dies in Black Panther.

The bulk of the casualties in the Battle of New York were police officers
When Secretary Ross reviews the casualty figures for the Battle of New York, only 74 casualties are shown, in spite of Daredevil indicating the numbers were in the hundreds. The reason for this discrepancy is that Ross only showed "civilian" casualties. This means that hundreds of NYPD officers gave their lives to get the civilians to safety.

Black Widow helped Steve in the final scene
She'll be on the run too since she let Steve and Bucky escape, so it makes sense that she'd join them and help out her friends (especially Hawkeye) too.
  • Confirmed.

Bruce Banner's cousin will appear in a later movie.
The fugitive avengers will hire Jennifer as their attorney to defend their rights. Wanting to punish her for this and/or use her as bait to capture Hulk, someone will harm her to the point she'll need a blood transfusion. Once she receives Bruce's blood...
  • She's getting a Disney+ show.

Norman Osborn will take advantage of the movie's events.
With the introduction of Spider-Man to the MCU comes the possibility of his entire Rogues Gallery. At his lowest point, Tony will meet another high tech industrialist around the same as hearing a green-skinned Goblin's cackle.
  • Jossed. Tony dies before Norman in introduced.

Phil Coulson will play a role in bringing the Avengers back together.
Since his 'death' is what motivates the Avengers to work together instead of being divided by Loki's schemes back in the Avengers, it's fitting that he will be the one to reunite the Avengers again. It's the perfect opportunity to re-introduce him to the movie-side of the MCU for future films, along with bringing in new heroes to fill the ranks to fight new, dangerous extraterrestrial threats like Thanos.
  • Jossed. Coulson's only subsequent movie appearance is in Captain Marvel, set in the 1990s.

Hope van Dyne/Pym helped Steve in his final scene
Scott is one of the inmates, so naturally she'd go along to try to free him, if only to get back her dad's technology and his only other hope of rescuing her mom, Janet, from sub-space. She was originally going to be in the film but was written out and it makes sense that this would have been her cameo appearance.
  • Jossed. According to Ant-Man and the Wasp, they became fugitives sue to Scott using their tech and they haven't seen him since and are angry that he went off to help Cap without telling them.

The Thunderbolts will eventually become a thing
Zemo will get out, and as noted above likely form some version of the Masters of Evil (possibly, like the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, being shortened to just 'the Masters', which is equally villainous sounding). Most likely, Moonstone will be featured in some capacity in Captain Marvel (most likely a sequel, with Yon-Rogg as the original villain), Beetle in Spider-Man: Homecoming (given Iron Man is in it, having Beetle as a minor threat the two deal with casually, ala Batroc, Crossbones, and Rhino in WS, CW, and ASM2 respectively), Goliath in Ant-Man and The Wasp or some other sequel with them, while Fixer and Screaming Mimi could be introduced in the Masters of Evil film, alongside some others maybe; basically, in an Avengers or Captain America film, these guys band together and Steve and the crew have to take them down.After another threat, something happens that makes the Avengers disappear; they're seemingly killed, lost in space, whatever, but the world is left without its heroes. In their place, Marvel introduces a new movie franchise, the Thunderbolts, a new team of heroes marketed as a Guardians of the Galaxy or Suicide Squad-like group of heroes who, while everyone who knows of the team will know the twist, the rest of the audience will go in expecting just a regular MCU affair...until the first act ends and the masks come off, revealing the Masters. Bonus points if Hawkeye ends up joining the group and turns them into legitimate heroes.
  • Jossed, but the Thunderbolts will be introduced into the MCU.

Future projects that can be spun off from the events of this film
  • Secret Avengers: With half the cast now criminals on the run, even when they patch things up the public trust might be shaky. So, to take advantage of that, several Avengers stay in the shadows, acting as a team of secret agent/superheroes, who run the mission, don't get seen, and save the world. Cast would likely entail Hawkeye as team leader, Black Widow as co-leader/stealth expert, Falcon as the eye-in-the-sky, Winter Soldier as the gun, and-given Most Wanted might not happen-Mockingbird as the infiltrator. War Machine when he's better could also act as the muscle of the team.
    • Jossed. They make up by Endgame.
  • Thunderbolts: Led by Baron Zemo as a new way to crumble the "Avenger's Empire"; replace them.
  • Confirmed. However, Zemo is not confirmed for the film, yet.
  • Black Widow: Now that she's on the run, perfect opening for her film. Ideally, Yelena Belova as the villain-admittedly another case of 'villain who's a mirror of the hero' but a natural choice-who, after committing a crime that only a Black Widow could commit, Natasha is publicly blamed and burnt, forcing her to go rogue to prove her innocence and track down the other Black Widow, dragging Bucky along for the ride. Yelena could steal components for the Super-Adaptoid, converting herself into a cyborg with powers along the lines of the Avengers, as a means to make a more powerful opponent and basically forcing Nat to fight someone with the powers of her friends.
    • Her movie is said to be set after Civil War.
  • War Machine: Inspired by the Pak run, Rhodey struggles to recover after his crash, so he uses a new armour, partially in-built using Deathlok technology, with a unique feature of allowing him to integrate any weapons he finds into the armour. With this, he goes to war with the Eaglestar PMC after they take over a small country to pursue mining an apparent alien weapon, and take his childhood friend as a prisoner; with no one else stepping in, he's forced to go rogue and take action, eventually fighting the thing Eaglestar are trying to get to: The Ultimo.
    • Jossed. He uses his regular armor in Infinity War and Endgame. Though, he is getting a future Disney+ show.
  • Young Avengers TV series: In the wake of the break-up of the Avengers, a time-travelling youth with Iron Man-like armour named Nate recruits a team of young superhumans band together to remind the world why the Avengers exist, in order to fight the time-travelling Kang the Conqueror. Eager to prove themselves, they quickly get caught up fighting against corrupt prisons experimenting on super-powered youths, a drug ring selling power-granting drugs, an alien war, among other things. Line-up would be Iron Lad (getting mild Composite Character treatment with Jonas Vision by lasting longer than the first adventure), Wiccan and Speed (as two boys who discover they're twins separated at birth, apparently created as part of the same experiments that would create the Maximoffs), Hulkling (ideally retaining his connection to the Skrull and Kree, but possibly adjusted for whatever corporate red tape exists), Kate Bishop (as a bored rich girl eager to use her skills and money to help fight the good fight), and Stature (getting a Plot-Relevant Age-Up for the sake of getting this made).
    • Stature could be from ten(ish) years in the future.
    • Jossed. The Avengers make up in Endgame.
  • Hawkeye TV series: Now cut off from his family, Hawkeye lives on the lam, hiding out in an apartment in Brooklyn, where he befriends another young archer and wannabe vigilante who he takes under his wing, adopts a dog, and fights off a gang of Russian Mobsters, ala the Matt Fraction series. Ideally this would follow a Young Avengers series first, to Kate introduced alongside her friends first rather than here, for reasons.
    • Jossed, though he is getting a Disney+ show.
      • Actually confirmed, this is more or less the plot of the Disney+ show.

Instead of becoming Nomad, Steve will become The Captain.
This would match up with the period in Mark Gruenwald's run where Steve donned a black costume, changed his name to the Captain, and began using a new black shield given to him by Black Panther. After all, "I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from." Thus, it follows that it doesn't matter where he's from.
  • Related to this, there was concept art for the movie showing Steve in an all-black stealth suit. It could be recycled for Infinity War, with Steve wearing a darker uniform now that he's no longer officially Captain America.
    • Jossed. There's no indication he changes his name.

While Steve is off being the Captain, Agent John Walker becomes the new Captain America for now.
This would also follow the above run. Tony could give him Steve's shield or make him a hard-light holographic one. There are jokes to be had about Walker being a US Agent and a Super Patriot. Plus his name sounds like whisky. Tony would love that.
  • Walker-Cap gets a partner, Lemar Hoskins aka Battlestar. Jokes to be had about how his Cap just happens to have a black guy for a partner too.
  • Jossed, but John and Lemar are later introduced in the sequel spin-off series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Thor hasn't come back because serious shit has gone down in Asgard.
Think about it. It's been about a year since he left at the end of Age of Ultron, and that was supposed to be a temporary leave of absence to find out who has been searching for the Infinity Stones. Things might have gotten bad enough that he can't leave. He may be in another war or he may have been imprisoned by Loki (masquerading as Odin).
  • Mixed. According to Ragnarok, he was trying to stop Ragnarok.

Ant-Man and The Wasp will deal with Scott's new status as a fugitive.
  • The Pyms might be mad at him for getting involved with the conflict in the first place.
  • Because of the accords Hank and Hope will also be fugitives.
    • Confirmed.

The serum used by Hydra to make the other five Winter Soldiers is the same serum used on Blonsky in The Incredible Hulk.
The serum is the same blue color, and has similar psychological and physiological effects on both the five Russians and the future Abomination. Minus the reptilian spinal features that the latter develops after his second dose, both sets of drugs enhance the soldier(s) receiving them, making them far stronger and faster, but at the cost of their sanity. It also requires a painful administration. Hydra likely stole the serum - likely an attempt to replicate the Super Soldier serum - after discovering the Starks' possession of it through their SHIELD infiltration; not wanting to disturb the more-carefully-cataloged sample that Ross later used, they acquired it in transit (and relieved themselves of one of their oldest enemies at the same time).

The deleted scenes in the DVD will show Tony trying (and failing) to recruit the future Defenders
There's no way Tony hasn't been monitoring the superhero activity in New York, and decided that clearly, the fifteen-year old rookie was his best choice to go against three super soldiers, an enhanced human, a man who can grow any size he wants and a former SHIELD agent. That's because Peter Parker was never his first choice. Tony would have gone to Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and possibly Frank Castle to see if they were interested. Given whose these people are, he would have been promptly told to go fuck himself, punched, angrily spoken to or have a gun clapped to his head.
  • That's probably why Tony didn't bother going to them at all. They were fully grown adults with various degrees of anger and violent tendencies. Peter is a young, impressionable kid, but also very strong and agile. It would be easy to convince him compared to the Defenders.
  • Jossed.

Tony was planning on recruiting Spider-Man into the Avengers for a while, and probably had an upgraded suit tucked away for him.
Obviously, he'd been surveilling the kid for several months, and might have had it in mind to pounce the minute Peter was old enough. Tony would have never had time to fly back to New York, get to Queens, get hold of Peter Parker, have his R&D team make a suit (or even make it himself, as genius as he is) to such exact specs, and then get him, assemble everyone back at the base of operations, then travel together to where Team Cap was (Berlin, Germany) in the space of twenty-four hours. So it stands to reason that Tony already had this suit prepared and was probably waiting for Peter to come of age before extending an official recruitment offer (which probably would have been packaged with or preceded by a civilian job at Stark Industries, given their status as fellow scientists.)
  • This is later implied at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, where Tony shows Peter a new suit and offers him a position on the Avengers.

Stan Lee's cameo was Willie Lumpkin
Because why the hell not?
  • Possibly Jossed. His cameos in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 implied he is playing the same character as his other cameos. Captain Marvel went even further, by implying they were all really Stan Lee himself!

Scarlet Witch was purposefully not using her telepathic powers.
It was out of respect for her new team. Obviously there are some Watsonian versus Doylist issues going on, re: why she doesn't use them, and sticks to her telekenesis, but from a Watsonian POV, would it really be that weird for her to refuse to use them, after how much those powers hurt her new team? Not to mention, when she used them last time, Tony created Ultron and the Hulk went on a rampage. She could also be worried about unforeseen consequences.

Potential Members of the Thunderbolts/the Masters of Evil:
They'll all be disguised/presented as superheroes before revealing themselves.
  • Zemo as Citizen V, probably uncomfortable in his new role due to his original motives wanting less superhuman fights, leading to some conflict between him and Osborn.
    • Zemo has yet to be confirmed for the film.
  • Bullseye, billing himself as Hawkeye's replacement.
    • Jossed - Bullseye showed up in the Netflix Daredevil series, meaning he's off the table. Trickshot (Clint's Brother) would be a better fit anyways.
    • Even after tge Netflix shows return to Marvel, neither character is confirmed.
  • Either an enhanced Abomination (looking more like his comicbook self) or Red Hulk (who may or may not be Ross).
    • Unclear. Abomination is heavily rumored, but not confirmed.
  • Yelena Belova as the new Black Widow.
    • Confirmed, with her serving as the lead of the film.
  • Ares replacing Thor as the resident otherworldly badass, possibly.
    • Jossed.
  • Norman Osborn as the Evil Counterpart to Nick Fury.
    • Jossed. However, Valentina may serve that role instead.

The serum used by Hydra to make the other five Winter Soldiers is derived from Kree blood.
This foreshadows a re-connect of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the MCU.

Justifying a classic look...
Hawkeye is among the renegade heroes that Cap broke out of the Raft. While his house is more or less a safe haven, Hawkeye knows that Iron Man (who as far as he knows is still hostile) knows where it is, so he can't exactly go home to his family. So where can he go? Perhaps some kind of travelling gig to stay mobile? Maybe one with a mask to hide his face from the public eye? People have been wanting his classic costume in the MCU since pretty much the get-go. Hiding out in a circus could justify his classic "former circus trick arrow" look.
  • Josssed. He went on house arrest to be with his family.

Steve had underwater help when going into the Raft.
Although Cap is one of the finest examples of a One-Man Army, getting into the the prison would be a huge task, even for him. The prison is gigantic, there's thousands of guards, it's very likely to be heavily defended and Cap didn't seem to have brought his shield with him when he went. So of course, he would need backup. But with [[spoiler: Bucky badly wounded/in stasis andNatasha going into serious hiding, he couldn't bring them along this time.]]

However, there was possibly someone else very angry about the Raft. Especially the fact that it was located underwater, right near their home...

  • Jossed. Namor is not set to be introduced until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The Avengers will be reunited, but not by Tony or Steve.
While it's true that the MCU needs the Avengers, it is clear that the Civil War created a hostility between Steve and Tony that won't be able to mend in a single film. Because of this, Carol Danvers will take initiative and lead a group of heroes that will be able to protect Earth should someone like Thanos threaten it. These heroes are:

Zemo did more than we realize
Zemo used psychological warfare against the Avengers. He wanted to maximize their inner turmoil in order to maximize the chance that they would fight each other. He arranged for that woman to confront Tony at the beginning. (Her story was genuine and she didn't know she was a pawn in Zemo's plan. He just set things up so that she would have the opportunity to make that speech.) He also made sure that the wrong text got into Tony's teleprompter, to remind him of his issues with Pepper. More sinister than that, he personally murdered Peggy. (He smothered her in her sleep, which made the death look natural.) He knew when the Avengers would be confronted with the Accords, and he timed everything to boost their stress.

The above WMG is true, and Zemo also drugged some of our heroes.
Why does Captain America make almost no effort to tell anyone about Bucky's mind-control, especially during the last fight? Why does Cap spend the last fight acting like he expects Tony to be completely rational and is completely at fault for not being so five minutes after seeing his parents killed by someone standing right next to him? Why does Ross trust Tony Stark of all people to lead the capture of Captain America? Why doesn't anyone just TALK about the IMPORTANT things in this movie? Because Zemo released a toxin into the air of the city, or its water supply, or just the Avengers' and other officials' coffee, that made them all lose massive chunks of their common sense and empathy.

Bucky will take up the shield post-Infinity War
Because Steve and the other O.G Avengers will die trying and failing to stop Thanos. Desperate and running out of time, the Powers That Be will call for Bucky to be taken out of cryostasis, and the first thing he'll be confronted with is a sober T'Challa holding Cap's dented shield.
  • Jossed. Cap gives the shield to Falcon.

Vision is less powerful than he seems
So Vision is a Flying Brick with intangibility and a laser beam. Why can't he just pwn Cap and all his friends? In fact, if you pay attention to the airport fight, you'll notice that Vision kinda disappears for large sections of the battle. It feels like the writers are just ignoring him because otherwise Tony's side would win easily. However, consider that maybe Vision needs to recharge between impressive feats, so he spends most of his time just hovering around and recharging.
  • More likely to do with Vision's philosophical views and his main focus was mostly on Wanda.

Thanos was helping Zemo
No matter how easy Zemo makes it sound, there's no way that one man could've gone through the encrypted HYDRA files, decrypted them, and discovered the information he needed, in less than a year. Considering the length and width of HYDRA's activities, there must be millions of those files. But what if Thanos was helping him to do so? That would also explain why Zemo was so expert at psychologically manipulating the Avengers, even though he doesn't have any insider knowledge of their personalities. Thanos could've easily acquired that knowledge via the Mind Stone. Helping Zemo would suit Thanos's plans well, because if the Avengers (and Earth superheroes in general) are divided, that will make them less of a threat when he comes to get the Infinity Stone. (Or Infinity Stones, in plural − it's perfectly possible one of the two Stones we haven't seen yet also resides on Earth.)
  • Jossed

The shield is the key to Tony and Steve's reconciliation
  • Steve sees the vibranium shield as his Iconic Item while Tony sees it as an invention of his father's and the American government sees it as their property. When the time for reconciliation comes, Tony will formally purchase the shield from the American government and present it to Steve. A note will say, "To: Capsickle. From: Tony Stank. This belongs with you."
  • Confirmed, though it's not the main part.

We will finally hear the catchphrase
After the events of the movie, we have disparate factions of Avengers. They are going to need to eventually unite. Future installments have each team continue to call itself The Avengers perhaps with some snarking at each other about worthiness to use the name. Well, then we've laid some ground work to make its eventual use both less ridiculous sounding and carry more emotional weight. When confronted by Thanos, Cap, Iron Man, and/or Thor will get to cry a mighty "Avengers Assemble!"
  • Confirmed in Endgame.

Stan the postman didn't misread Tony Stark's name
Steve really wrote it "Tony Stank" just to mess with Tony.
  • Or maybe the delivery man did it to mess with Tony, just because he's seen the way Stark acts on TV and thinks he's a jerk.

Tony will sink into alcoholism and suicidal depression
Iron Man 2 was, so far, the closest thing we got to the Demon in a Bottle arc; there, Tony was dying, dealing with daddy issues and (attempting to) pass the torch. Come post-Civil War, now Tony has to deal with:
  • The aftermath of his creation causing thousands of deaths (Ultron)
  • Another creation paralyzing a friend (Vision accidentally nicking Rhodes' Arc Reactor)
  • His moral tether dumping him (Pepper said no suits, and then he goes and creates Ultron; would she stick around?)
  • His former teammates as well as various innocents imprisoned in a maximum security prison (as is the status of Cap's team come pre-credits)
  • The Avengers are now fractured because he believed he had everyone's best intentions in mind.
  • He recruited a 15-year-old kid to fight a war. Once again, his impulsive decisions nearly cost another innocent person their life.
Add all that up and you have a guy who, since his kidnapping eight years prior, believes himself to be the cause of incalculable tragedy and loss with only one of his friends (paralyzed indirectly by him) at his side, it's only a matter of time before Tony starts to believe in brown bottle pain relief.
  • Jossed. He's his usual snarky self in Homecoming.

Zemo is Red Skull's grandson
Being a son of a Nazi supervillain is an important part of the comic Helmut Zemo character. Since his movie father got Adaptational Heroism, while Red Skull got some parts of comic Heinrich Zemo added to him, it's the most obvious way to bring this aspect of Zemo into the MCU.

Was Vision shooting down War Machine an accident
Or did he do that intentionally since War Machine hurt Wanda?
  • War Machine was only hit because Falcon got out of the way, so...
    • Yes, very coincidental. It was stated that Vision doesn't miss. He was cradling an injured Wanda and looked visibly pissed when Rhodey, who hurt her, asked for his help.

Movie Vision does not use Comic Book Codenames
Back in Age of Ultron he never actually got the name Vision, although the word kept popping up to describe him. Indeed, everyone seemed to want to call him Jarvis until he nixed that, and after that they didn't have time to name him. Come Civil War, everyone calls him Vis. My contention is that it's not Vis,' short for Vision, but 'Vis, short for Jarvis.
  • Jossed. He's called Vision in Infinity War.

Eventually, it will be the Tahiti Protocol that's used to wipe Hydra's programming from Bucky's mind.
The protocol is used to modify and/or erase memories, so that may come in handy in wiping away whatever memories cause that Trigger Phrase to work.
  • Jossed. Bucky programming is removed by the Wakandans

Steve's make out session with Sharon was nothing but an I Just Want to Be Normal moment
Many a viewer have criticized Steve and Sharon Carter's seemingly spontaneous romance. So I posit Steve, between the extreme stress of the upcoming battle and his massive amount of Ho Yay with Bucky conflicting with his 1940's sensabilities, made him want to mack on Sharon to try and convince himself at least one thing in his life wasn't falling apart. And it probably didn't work.
  • In Endgame, Cap goes back in time to be with Peggy.

The delivery man played by Stan Lee is the Smithsonian security guard from Winter Soldier
As he thought after letting the Captain America costume from the exhibit get stolen, he did indeed get fired. So, he decided to get a job with FedEx, which led him to his current job as a reliable delivery guy who mispronounces names every once in a while.

Ross tried to force Hawkeye out of retirement and may have threatened his family
This would go worlds to explaining Hawkeye's otherwise erratic behavior and anger in the movie. Kind, responsible, family man Clint Barton would not pressure Wanda to get herself in more trouble no matter what he thought of the Accords...unless he had reason to believe the government holding her was completely corrupt and evil. Being threatened by Ross would also explain why he was furious enough to taunt Tony about Rhodey's broken back ("If you turn your back on Tony Stark, chances are he'll break it!"), something Clint Barton would normally be the last person to do.

Zemo was not the only one manipulating the Avengers.
  • Thaddeus Ross was clearly just waiting for an excuse to put those superheroes he hates so much in that raft prison. And who in their right mind would put Tony Stark in charge of the mission to capture Captain America, even if Tony did volunteer? (Tony is brilliant and a cinnamon roll, but for that specific mission, the last person you'd want to be in charge.) Perhaps Ross knew of Tony and Steve's rocky relationship and both's stubborn and erratic natures, and let Tony lead the mission specifically to see it go the worst way possible.
  • And then there's Sharon Carter. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU3InsThiXw lays it out, but for those who don't feel like watching the whole thing: everything Sharon says and does in the movie propels Captain America to oppose the law, from the speech she gives at Pegg's funeral (while making direct eye contact with Steve) to delivering Steve and Sam their equipment so they can fight the law. The out-of-nowhere romance could easily be a spy taking advantage of a lonely, stressed-out, traumatized man. What Sharon's motives for helping to cause this "civil war" are, is anyone's guess. She may have been a villain in league with Zemo; or she may simply have been doing her job as a secret agent, acting on orders from a government who wanted the Avengers disassembled (Ross, perhaps).
  • As other theories have pointed out, Thanos may also have been involved.
  • Basically, the Avengers' actions make far more sense if there were extra layers of manipulation causing them to distrust each other.

The Guardians of the Galaxy will be the catalyst to bring the Avengers back together
The Guardians are "A thief, two thugs, an assassin, and a maniac" (and just adopted Mantis and Nebula). They are an Anti-Hero Team; mercenaries, not quite former crooks, and a bunch of a-holes. The Avengers, by comparison, have traditionally heroic backgrounds; Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain America are government agents. Iron Man is a billionaire who turned his money into heroics, Thor is a demigod looking to stop his ill brother from causing more harm. Hulk is a kindly doctor drafted into this mess. And yet the thief, thugs, assassin, and maniac are the ones who have their act together by comparison. The Avengers would likely be wary of the Guardians because of their shady background, but Rocket and/or Drax will likely point out that, as screwed up as the Guardians are, they're the functional bunch of a-holes at the moment where the "traditional" heroes spend more time infighting than getting things done.
  • Jossed. The Guardians team up with them, but have nothing to do with their reconciliation.

The letter with the flip-phone was not the first letter Steve sent Tony after the Siberia fight.

Multiple viewers who've dealt with various types of abuse find that letter to be a textbook example of a "fake apology" from someone trying to shift blame away from themselves, trying to avoid the issue they're supposedly apologizing for, and build themselves up as the victim and martyr. However, this changes completely if one presumes that this letter was not Steve's apology at all, but simply a follow-up to it. Between Siberia and the "Tony Stank" scene, Cap sent a letter, or multiple letters, where he gave a genuine apology and explanation to Tony about why he kept his parents' murders from him. Whatever reasons Cap gave apparently weren't enough to get Tony back on speaking terms with him, but Cap did at least try. The movie just didn't show us it.

HYDRA orchestrated everything about the Accords and Zemo's plot as retaliation for the failure of Project Insight

The whole issue of the Sokovia Accords is suspect. Think about it. They’re named the Sokovia Accords, so obviously a byproduct of what happened in Novi Grad, but if you actually stop to think about it, are they really about Novi Grad?

Let's set aside the fact that Zemo’s plan was entirely dependent upon events happening in a particular order at a particular time, but look all of the other things that led up to the introduction of the Accords in that scene with Ross. First, we have Brock Rumlow, a known HYDRA agent, come out of two years of hiding and attempt a very public attack on the IFID Headquarters, necessitating a special ops team of enhanced humans to be sent to stop him. The mission was a success, but with heavy civilian casualties, which is the type of thing to make the news.

Enter Thaddeus Ross with these Accords, a document that calls for the literal regisistration and containment of enhanced individuals that so many people back, coincidentally just after an incident involving an enhanced individual (Wanda Maximoff).

Now consider that these Accords were drafted and agreed upon by 117 countries within a year of what happened in Sokovia. This is highly suspicious, because most members of the UN Security Council can’t agree on what to have for lunch, let alone something that would affect everyone in such a monumental way. But, somehow, all of these countries, some of which can’t stand each other and will disagree on an issue just on principle, all came together within a year to create these Accords? Add to that the fact that the mother of an American citizen that died in Novi Grad just happened to bypass all of Tony Stark’s security to guilt him for his royal fuck-up that cost her son his life? Something doesn't add up.

What's more likely is that HYDRA had something in the works after Project Insight went belly up. There was a plot, orchestrated by HYDRA over several decades, beaten back in the span of one afternoon by one enhanced individual and four of his allies (Steve, Sam, Natasha, Sharon, and Fury). Five people, tops, took down one of the world’s most powerful intelligence organizations in a literal afternoon.

As shown by Strucker's activities and Ant-Man, not all of HYDRA's many heads died with Pierce. With Pierce dead, these other top figures who managed to avoid detection and hold onto their power came up with an idea to contain and control the Avengers so that something like this couldn’t happen again. The only problem was, how would they put that into effect? The Avengers were praised as heroes by the press for stopping the alien invasion of Manhattan and for preventing its total destruction by a nuclear warhead. Can’t use that as an excuse, because nothing unites humanity more than an external threat. Can’t use what happened in D.C. either, because all those files were leaked to the public, so the world now knows about how HYDRA, under the guise of the World Security Council and S.H.I.E.L.D., was manipulating the world to create a system that would tolerate authoritarian rule.

So what then? What could they possibly use as a catalyst to introduce these Accords?

Simple: Tony Stark, his massive ego and the creation of a genocidal robot.

Obviously, HYDRA had no way of planning it. But they saw an opportunity for what it was and didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth.

Now Sokovia has fallen, resulting in massive casualties, and some ambassador or politician was able to use that opportunity to present the Accords, which a lot of those 117 signing countries were quick to agreed to, because a fair number of those signitories are dictatorships run by power-hungry tyrants who probably don't want the Avengers sneaking into their country and exposing their darkest, dirtiest secrets to the world. Obviously not everyone had a horrible agenda, but power corrupts and the United States was probably not the only country that looked into human enhancement for their military use.

Now, how to bring this all together after the fact (because there's no way someone just waltzed into the UN headquarters in New York the day after Sokovia and presented a three hundred page document)? Simple, you use one of your old agents (Rumlow) in an attempt to draw out the Avengers in the hopes that something will go wrong, as things often do in combat situations. Keep the “threat” of enhanced individuals fresh in the public mind.

It's just as likely that HYDRA also had a hand in orchestrating Zemo’s move against the Avengers. Obviously not directly. They didn’t give him orders and he followed them without question, no. But they helped with getting him the right files on the Winter Soldier to decrypt, making sure that he found them after what happened to his family. Remember that HYDRA had a strong presence in Sokovia, so they probably had files on Sokovian intelligence, the same way they had files on the Avengers themselves. HYDRA could use this whole situation (Zemo trying to use the Winter Solider to take down the Avengers) to knock off quite a few birds with one stone: not only do they split the Avengers (because they had to know Steve would never sign the Accords and would also do anything to protect Bucky) but they flush out their most prominent weapon over the last fifty years out of hiding, either to have Bucky eliminated (this erasing any chance his actions might be traced back to them) or containment, which would get a Winter Soldier back in their hands to use as they see fit.

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