Before I begin I'd just like to note that all of this is complete speculation. I have no definitive proof of any claims I make in this article.
At this point I'm sure you're all thinking "well of course there will be Nazis' in the Captain America movie, how could you tell Captain America's story without Nazis'?"
And you'd be right. It would be downright imbecilic to make a Captain America movie, set IN World War II without having Nazi Germany as the antagonists.
And that, true believers is what I am here to discuss.
At first, the thought that the film may exclude Nazis' never once crossed my mind. I mean it's a WW2 movie. Of course there'll be Nazis, right?
It wasn't until the screenshots of "Captain America: Super Soldier" were released that I began to have my doubts.
As you can see, Cap is in a room adorned with what appear to be typical Nazi banners except the Swastika has been replaced with the HYDRA symbol.
This could be easily explained by saying that he's in a HYDRA facility, of course. The fact that the flags bear such a striking resemblance to the banners Germany used back in the day raises some suspicion.
At this point, I began to realize that not only does the game seem to be apparently devoid of Nazis. Of all the (admittedly few) images we've seen from the movie, there has yet to be any sign of Nazis' there either.
Both images of the bikes and the car from the chase scene show the vehicles and soldiers to again bear the HYDRA logo, not the Swastika, same with the more recent images of the submarine and jet skis.
Now as I've said, these are the only images we have of the movie. It's not a lot to confirm or deny my claims, especially seeing as we've yet to see anything involving the actual war. Again, this may just be my paranoia speaking.
As far as I'm aware, there hasn't even been any official statement from the filmmakers that the Nazis will indeed be the enemies in this film. Of course, it seems like something that would go without saying, but that also has me worried.
Finally, the thing that has me most convinced that we may not be seeing Nazis in the Captain America Film came from the Micro Episodes of "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" featuring Captain America.
They HAVE completely replaced Nazi Germany with HYDRA.
Now where I can understand their wanting to keep Nazi imagery out of a children's show, this bothers me. This cartoon seems so far to be one giant advertisement for the live action Avengers movies given the numerous similarities.
And as you can see, again, the Swastika has been replaced with the HYDRA logo. They even refer to the Allies as fighting HYDRA forces, not Nazi or even Axis forces in the cartoon.
As I have said, I can see why they would do so for a cartoon. It doesn't necessarily mean that they would do it in the film. The seed of doubt has been planted, and the lurking suspicion won't leave my mind.
And now I shall close by saying that if they do indeed end up replacing the Nazis with HYDRA in "Captain America: The First Avenger," it would be completely outrageous. I don't think I could respect that kind of needless censorship, and mockery of history.
So here's hoping that my theories are unfounded, and I'm completely wrong.
UPDATE:
And now we even have this official image of Red Skull from the film itself, adorned, not with a Nazi Swastika, but yet again with the HYDRA logo.
While apparently the article in question does in fact make mention of Nazis being in the film, I still have my doubts as to how prominent they will be, and it still seems likely that they will be largely ignored so that HYDRA can be the primary antagonists, and Captain Amrica may yet not fight any actual Nazis.
I hate to say it, true believers, but I think my suspicions have been all but confirmed, and, one way or another, we may be getting a watered down and pussified Captain America movie.
Which really saddens me, because otherwise, this is shaping up to look like possibly Marvel's best live action film to date.