With excitement building up for the upcoming 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' movie this coming summer, it is somewhat understandable that 'Captain America: Civil War', which will be coming out next year, has not received equal attention. That should change soon after 'Age of Ultron' is released as it will most likely lead in to the 'Civil War' in some form or another.

One thing Marvel has done extremely well with its movie franchises is in the construction of an overall movie universe where each individual movie and its cast of characters are interconnected. The first two 'Iron Man' movies laid the foundation for future Marvel movies such as 'Avengers', 'Thor', and 'Captain America'.

So how will 'Age of Ultron' transition into 'Civil War'? Based on the comic books, 'Civil War' pitted the Marvel superheroes against each other as they took sides on the issue of superhero registration following a tragic event that led to the death of many innocents. The superheroes essentially chose between siding with Iron Man's pro-registration side or with Captain America's anti-registration side.

Marvel's movie universe has its own continuity apart from the comic books, so the event that will trigger the idea of superhero registration could be anything. Expect such an event to occur in 'Age of Ultron', though at this time, we can only speculate on its exact details.

Whatever the case, 'Civil War' is shaping up to be a very interesting movie, if for no other reason than to dig deeper into the characterization of the individual superheroes in the Marvel universe. The obvious question to answer is: who will side with Captain American and who will side with Iron Man?

The cast for the film has already included several key figures from the various Marvel franchises and even includes new recruits for future movies. Joining Chris Evans (Captain America) and Robert Downey (Iron Man) are Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), and Sebastian Stan (Winter Solider). Newcomer Chadwick Boseman will appear in the film in what we can assume is his first appearance as Black Panther.

'Captain America: Civil War' is currently in pre-production and is set for release on May 2016.