Kevin Feige on Spider-Man’s Place in the MCU and Inspiration from John Hughes
Last week it was announced that Tom Holland would be taking on the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man for Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures. Shortly after the young actor reported to the set of Captain America: Civil War where he will make his first appearance in the MCU.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will have a big hand in what happens with Spider-Man from here on out. Not only in the MCU, but also with the solo films that will be developed with Sony Pictures, which will also be part of the MCU.
Feige recently did an interview with a few sites in which he talks about the connection the character has with Marvel and Sony, the characters place in the MCU, how the character relates to the Avengers, and how it will be inspired by John Hughes.
Talking about his partnership with Sony, and how it was going so far, he told comingsoon:
“We’re producing that movie for Sony and in partnership with Amy Pascal, so it’s been going through the same process of any other Marvel film would, and it’s been great. Tom Rothman at Sony has been very supportive in the decisions and obviously the two big ones we announced this week.”
He went on to talk about his past relationship with Rothman, whom he worked with as an associate producer on the first X-Men movie. He was asked if that helped pave the way for their current relationship, and this was his reply:
“It was a very different capacity. Marvel Studios as its own studio didn’t exist and I was not a full producer on any of those movies. It was a different relationship, but he was always very supportive of me personally.”
As for whether or not we would see any other Spider-Man characters appearing in the MCU sometime down the road, Feige said:
“Right now, it’s all about producing the new stand-alone Spider-Man movie. That’s what Sony is focused on. That’s what we’re focused on, and whatever happened before that or after that, sort of remains to be seen, but it’s all about producing the best Spider-Man movie we can, certainly within the Sony Universe, next July.”
Feige was then asked if there would be anything from the previous Spider-Man films that would carry over to the new movie to which he replied:
“We’re going to have it be its own thing but some of those Spider-Man films… I think Spider-Man 2 is one of the best superhero movies ever, so that’s a lot to live up to.”
I couldn’t agree with him more. I freakin’ loved Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2! In a separate interview with Zap2it , Feige discussed the character and his place in the MCU further:
"The biggest thing ... is that it takes place in this universe. It's the first time that you'll be able to see Spider-Man like he was in the comics, as a very different type of hero when compared to the other heroes in the universe."
As for how Spider-Man fits in with the rest of the Avengers team and how he will relate to them, Feige explained:
"Up until this point in the other Spidey films, he was the only hero, and now he's not. Now he's a kid in Queens with these powers and has other [superheroes] to look to. Does he want to be like these other characters? Does he want nothing to do with these other characters? How does that impact his experience, being this grounded but super powerful hero? Those are all the things that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko played with in the first 10 years of his comics, and that now we can play with for the first time in a movie."
Finally, in another interview with Birth Movies Death, Feige called Spider-Man's roster of enemies an "advantage," and said, "Right now we’re interested in seeing villains we haven’t seen before.” Then he explained how the solo film will be inspired by the classic films of John Hughes:
“It’s the soap opera in high school, and those supporting characters, that are interesting. Just as we hadn’t seen a heist movie in a long time, or a shrinking movie in a long time, we haven’t seen a John Hughes movie in a long time. Not that we can make a John Hughes movie - only John Hughes could - but we’re inspired by him, and merging that with the superhero genre in a way we haven’t done before excites us.”
Captain America: Civil War will be released on May 6th, 2016. The Spider-Man solo film is set to be directed by Jon Watts (Cop Car), and it's currently scheduled for release on July 28th, 2017.