Alfre Woodard Will Appear in ‘Captain America: Civil War’

In what was either a slip or a calculated maneuver to goose up news, Marvel Studios let the cat of the bag that Alfre Woodard (a multiple Emmy Award winner and past Oscar nominee) would appear in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War. Right away, speculation arose that Woodard would be portraying Mariah Dillard in the highly anticipated film opening May 6th – that’s the villainous part she will be playing on Netflix’s upcoming Marvel series Luke Cage. 

A neat integration between the films and the Netflix series and a female villain added to one of their major movies? Not bad considering the Netflix shows are highly acclaimed and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been slammed for gender inequality in the past. Sounds exciting, right? Unfortunately, that won’t be in the cards. Woodard will appear in Captain America: Civil War but not as Dillard at all but in separate, but perhaps pivotal role. Marvel let Woodard’s appearance slip when her name appeared on the cast list in an e-mail sent out regarding the upcoming Hollywood premiere of the movie (a similar slip-up also occurred when Linda Cardellini and Julie Delpy were put on the premiere cast list for Avengers: Age of Ultron). Jim Rash (Oscar winning writer of The Descendants and co-star of cult hit Community) also appeared on the cast list but his role appears unspecified and may only a cameo.

Reportedly, Woodard’s part will appear in the opening moments of Civil War as she portrays an American citizen whose child was killed in the Sokovia attack that occurred in Age of Ultron. According to Screen Crush, Woodard gets to lay it on thick in blaming Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. It also appears that Woodard may have shot her Civil War scenes before accepting the Luke Cage gig, which may account for the double duty play; coincidentally actors Ray Stevenson (Thor)  and Enver Gjokaj (Agent Carter) have also played two separate characters in the Marvel world, so Woodard is not alone on that front.

Captain America: Civil War (with Alfre Woodard) opens on May 6th.