On Friday afternoon Marvel announced that Daniel Brühl will appear in Captain America: Civil War as a villain. The specific character is unknown, and Variety fanned the flames a bit by adding the tidbit that he may also appear in Dr. Strange, where his villainous character would have a larger role. There is always that possibility—everyone signs multi-appearance deals with Marvel, who circled Brühl for a long time before finding the right role for him.
This is a huge break for Brühl, who somehow got left behind when everyone else rode the Inglorious Basterds train to greater career visibility. Certainly Brühl has a great career in Europe, and he got some traction off last year’s racer biopic, Rush. But he hasn’t cracked the mainstream the way that, say, Michael Fassbender has. And his part in Basterds was way bigger! He was one of the main characters! He’s totally charming and cute—I’m not sure why he stalled out on this side of the pond. But now he’s got entertainment’s biggest stage before him and I couldn’t be more excited to see what he does with it.
Something to keep in mind about Civil War is that it won’t be a literal adaptation of the comic book (good), any more than The Winter Soldier was a literal adaptation of that comic. The broad strokes of Captain America and Iron Man disagreeing are there, but Bucky Barnes is more central to the movie’s plot than he was in the comics. And while Frank Grillo’s Crossbones will be the A-villain, Brühl’s character will cast a long shadow. That Marvel has cast someone so charismatic is promising—we need an earth-bound equivalent to Loki.
