In this interview, Johnston discusses the nature of the character, his determination that Cap's origin take place in the past, the appeal of that era, the way it connects to the time period of his earlier film The Rocketeer, and how Captain America can stand as a symbol of hope even in our cynical times.
“We wanted to tell the origin story of the character,” Johnston explains in the interview, “but you really only get one chance to tell the story. We debated back and forth whether or not it should be period of present day. We finally realized that if we do it in present day, it’s going to be really impossible to go back and tell his origin story. So we said, ‘Let’s bite the bullet and tell how Captain America came to be.’ I mean, studios and money people just think, ‘Oh, period, this is going to cost us more and this is going to be harder to sell,’ but I think, ‘Well, look at Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was 1936, about as period as you can get, and everything worked on that film. I mean, it was just virtually flawless from beginning to end. Not that we’re using that as our blueprint, but we’re certainly inspired by the hopefulness of what they did on that picture.”
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