Kevin Feige Explains Marvel’s Approach to Using a Younger SPIDER-MAN
I have no doubt that fans are going to fall in love with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. You are going to get to see about 30 minutes of him in Civil War, and a lot of that is him in action fighting alongside team Iron Man. It’s definitely going to leave you wanting more, and we’ll get it in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
This version of the Web-Slinger is much younger than any Spider-Man we’ve seen yet. He’s said to be inspired by Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man. Director Jon Watts, Marvel, and Sony wanted to do something completely different with the character this time around, so they’ve actually cast a young actor to play a young high school aged Spider-Man.
While talking to /Film about the character and the importance of making him so young, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said:
“We wanted to show a much younger Spidey, in contrast to our other heroes, a Spidey who — as was he was in the early ’60s, when he was first created in the Marvel bullpen — was totally different from the Marvel heroes. The other heroes don’t have to worry about homework. They don’t have to worry about being home at a certain time. That’s what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man. We also wanted to let audiences know he’s already Spider-Man; he’s been Spider-Man for a little while when we meet him. There wasn’t the expectation we’d tell an origin. I think everybody in the world already knows.”
At the recent press conference for the film that I attended earlier this week, Feige shared the process of bringing Spider-Man into the MCU and recounted Robert Downey Jr.’s reaction when he told him about it:
“I called Robert relatively early saying, ‘I think there might be a chance we’re going to get Spider-Man in this movie.’ His reaction was just like a fanboy. He was unbelievably excited for what that could mean to this movie. Two weeks after that, we pulled it down to about five finalists. I asked him, ‘If we bring them to Atlanta, do you mind reading with all five?’ And he did. We pulled it down a little bit more. That’s how Tom came to the top. Then Tom and one other person came back and did more of a stunt test. Chris was very gracious to read opposite of him. It was fun to see Robert was invested, and to see Tom react to Robert, which was not dissimilar to how Peter was reacting to Tony.”
As far as the collaboration between Disney and Sony has been going in bringing the character to life, Feige said it’s been smooth sailing so far:
“You’re dealing with two very powerful studios that have their own interest. It’s a testament to Amy Pascal, who’s producing the film with us, and Tom Rothman, who runs Sony, and to all the people that run Disney. They realized the best thing for the character was to do this. It was great. The standalone Spider-Man is Sony Pictures’ film, but they’ve engaged us in producing it. So far, so good.”
Hopefully, they are able to happily work with each other for many years to come. I’m sure that as long as they are both making lots of money, they’ll be happy. Spider-Man: Homecoming opens in theaters July 7th, 2017.