The Russo Brothers Talk About Spider-Man's "Unique Place" in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

If you don't instantly know the names Anthony and Joe Russo by now, you haven't been paying attention. The filmmakers are Marvel Studios' new golden boys: after directing the excellent Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they earned the directing gig for this year's Captain America: Civil War, and they're already developing the two-part Avengers sequel Infinity War.

In a new interview with Forbes, the directors talked about introducing a new version of Spider-Man to the MCU at the end of their new movie's most recent trailer, and how the character will fit in to the dynamic of Civil War:

Joe: We always intended to [introduce Spidey like that]. He was my favorite character growing up, I still have my collection of comics in my closet so it was a dream come true for us to be able to have Spidey in the movie and interpret him as a character so we couldn’t be more excited and we wanted to share that with everybody else.

Anthony: Also I think it was a little bit of a correction because it was a very complicated deal that Sony had to work out with Marvel Studios and Disney in order to make that work. We were very quiet about Spider-Man’s involvement in the movie for much longer than we would have been. We were artificially silent on the character because it was such a sensitive business deal still being worked out even while we were shooting. We went through a very thorough casting process, we tested Tom Holland vigorously with Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr,, we screen tested him along with several other actors, it was a very intense part of making Captain America: Civil War because he was an important part of the movie to us. Finally it’s all secure and we’re at a place where we can present him even in just a small taste.

Joe: We thought it was a great way to reveal him. I think people are going to be happy with him in the movie, he’s got a very interesting role in it.

Anthony: I’ll say this, part of the fun of Spider-Man is that this film is basically a war amongst the Avengers and Spidey does not have the baggage that all these other characters have. He enters the story after the conflict that is happening between the Avengers and that gives him a very unique place in the story.

Sounds cool to me. Meanwhile, fans went bonkers over Spider-Man's appearance in the trailer, but not all of them loved the webslinger's new costume. The Russos have seen that online controversy, and if you're one of those people who wasn't pleased with Spidey's new look, they say that you should wait to see the whole thing in context:

Joe: The design of the costume is what it is. That’s the design that we love, it’s the design that Kevin Feige loves and so on. He’s a very popular character so it’s always going to be controversial, people are always going to love or hate what you do with him, but all we can do is make sure that we love it, that we are true to ourselves and true to how we feel about the character and then hope that everybody else digs it.

Anthony: Part of issue is that we gave such a small impression of the character in that trailer, it’s something of a Rorschach test where people can pour as much of their Spidey anxieties out but when they see the movie they are going to get a very big picture of a very complete character that they have never seen before. It’s kind of hard to react to people’s reactions but they will change radically when they see the movie.

Joe: And there is still effects work that needs to be done on it.

So as usual, it's probably best to wait until we actually see the final movie before getting truly worked up about something. Thankfully, we don't have that much longer to wait. Captain America: Civil War arrives in theaters on May 6th. The whole interview is definitely worth reading if you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so check it out in full at Forbes.