As many of you already know, I'm not American. However, even I can appreciate that Captain America was a symbol created to represent everything great about the United States. As IGN point out in a recent article, "Steve Rogers is walking proof that anyone can become a great and powerful leader. He may be blond-haired and white of skin, but he fights for justice across all racial and ethnic boundaries. And if that sometimes puts him at odds with the very government he fights to uphold, so be it." I think it’s worth pointing out that I personally believe that Marvel WILL include them in the movie but below I take a step back and try to weigh up both the pros and cons of including the Nazis in Captain America: The First Avenger.
Even today, the Nazis are considered to be the embodiment of evil and who could possibly imagine an enemy more worthy than them for Steve Rogers to take on? Removing them would not only be a silly change to history, but it would also be more than a little insulting to those that sacrificed their lives in real life, for the Nazis to be replaced by a fictional group of comic book villains. Maybe that's a slightly silly thing to say as this is of course a COMIC BOOK movie, but omitting the Nazis is borderline ridiculous in a WWII movie and could easily backfire on Marvel Studios. Back in the 1940's, the first cover of a Captain America comic actually depicted him punching Adolf Hitler. If it ain't broke...
Making HYDRA a separate entity to the Nazi party makes for some very interesting story possibilities. As we've already seen in the pictures of the motorbikes and submarine, their tech is very advanced for the time and making them the main villains would make them appear more like a poor mans version of the Nazis but with hard to believe weapons that might cause most to feel like the movie loses a big dose of realism. However, making them an offshoot and experimental part of the Nazis is far more believable. It makes for a "What If?" type of situation that would engage audiences in the sense that something like that could have actually happened had history gone a little differently.
On the other hand, would it really matter if the Nazis were to become HYDRA in this fictional version of the Marvel Universe? All this involves is changing the name and logos on a few flags as depicted in that recently released image of Hugo Weaving (The Red Skull) in a HYDRA uniform. Although I'm sure we'll see Cap take on plenty of soldiers on the battlefield, I would imagine that it'll be HYDRA that he'll spend 99% of the movie fighting them. In fact, Marvel could easily get away with just a quick meeting between the Skull and Hitler or a brief scene featuring them. If for some reason Marvel have decided not to include them in the movie, then there are ways in which they could effectively skirt around them by keeping them in the background with HYDRA at the forefront.
It’s worth remembering that Marvel is now owned by Disney.
Captain America will undoubtedly be a PG-13. Will they really want to fill a "family movie" with the Nazis? They were reluctant to tackle Tony Stark's alcoholism in
Iron Man 2 for that very reason. Although it wouldn't be necessary to show some of the more upsetting things that they were responsible for during the war, their addition might pit some people off from taking their kids to see it. After all, the simple fact that the movie is set during the 1940's runs the risk of alienating anyone who doesn't enjoy that genre of movies and Captain America is probably going to be a tough concept to sell these days anyway, without the added complications of including the Nazis.
In my opinion, I think that the Nazis are an essential addition to this movie. While in theory it might seem acceptable to rebrand the Nazis as HYDRA in the Marvel cinematic universe, this will surely cheapen and lessen the threat of the villains to the average movie goer! Why? Well, you don't need to have ever read a comic book to appreciate just how great a threat the Nazi party would be for Captain America to take on. Calling them HYDRA removes that weight and in my eyes would lessen the importance of why Steve Rogers decided to try and join the Army in the first place. Although I can appreciate why Marvel might choose to minimise their involvement in the movie, removing them entirely would be a mistake for all the reasons above and more. What do you think? Be sure to share your thoughts in the usual place, and thanks for reading!