Daniel Brühl, the actor who portrayed Helmut Zemo in 2016's
Captain America: Civil War, believes that his character could possibly return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Brühl's Zemo was introduced as the primary antagonist in Captain America's third, and arguably best, solo outing. Emotionally damaged by the events of
Avengers: Age of Ultron, where his family was killed in the Battle of Sokovia, Zemo formulated a diabolical plan to exact his revenge. Through some expert level masterminding, Zemo caused the Avengers to split up and incited an epic battle between its two leaders, Captain America and Iron Man.
In an interview with Screen Rant to promote his latest film,
7 Days in Entebbe, Brühl pondered whether Zemo could pop up somewhere in the future:
Well I hope so. I always say they didn’t kill me, which is always a good sign. As you can imagine, it’s extremely secretive. Even if I would know something, I would probably not be allowed to tell you. But again, I was very glad about the fact that he [did] not kill himself and [was] stopped by Black Panther and that he ends up in a prison. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to get out of that prison somehow.
With one of the biggest complaints of the Marvel movie franchise being its lackluster villains, Helmut Zemo stood out among them. At first, it appeared that Zemo was just bouncing around from scene to scene committing random evil acts. We could tell he was clearly up to no good, but we couldn't really gather what his grand plan was. It wasn't until the very end when his brilliance manifested.
He knew that the world was on the fence regarding the Avengers because of the sheer amount of damage they cause when they're busy kicking ass. He knew it would be easy to frame Bucky for the heinous crime of killing T'Challa's father because of all the evil things he had done up until that point (to give him some credit, he was brainwashed). He counted on the fact that Steve Rogers had a soft spot for Bucky, and that he would most certainly put his life on the line to protect him, no matter the costs. All those things put together enabled Zemo to single-handedly take out the Avengers. And the beauty of it is he did so with no superpowers. He didn't even have to fight them, just turn them against each other and watch them tear themselves apart. Just imagine what he would do if he got a second crack at it.
Where would Zemo be best suited should he make a grand return? My vote is for the
Black Panther sequel. They have faced off in the comics on occasion. And considering how
Captain America: Civil War ended, it seems Zemo would have plenty of motivation to go at T'Challa for some payback.
What do you think? Would you like to see Zemo return to the MCU? Who should he face off against? Shout out in the comments below!