MCU: 10 Things You Might Not Know About SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Geek Dave is looking at porn?

1. In an interview from 2013, while promoting his then upcoming film, How I Live Now, Tom Holland was asked by a reporter what kind of role he might want to try next. When Holland replied, saying a project with action and humor would be of interest to him, the reporter asked if he would ever like to play a superhero.

"Maybe Spider-Man, in ten years time. The reboot of the reboot, if they do that."

2. In 2014, when Sony released The Amazing Spider-Man 2, their intention was to build a universe not too dissimilar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe using only the Spider-Man characters which they owned the screen rights to. This is very likely the major contributing factor behind why the second Andrew Garfield film bombed so badly, it was overstuffed with characters and sub-plots Sony insisted on including as springboards for potential films.

Not only would there be the announced third Amazing Spider-Man film with a release date of June 10th 2016, and a fourth film with a release date of May 4th, 2018, but there would be spin-off films featuring the Sinister Six and Venom, with Drew Goddard writing and directing Sinister Six for a November 2016 release date, and Alex Kurtzman directing a Venom script co-written by himself. 2017 was supposed to have seen a film starring Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, as well as a spin-off based on Spider-Man 2099.

The poor reception for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 essentially nixed all these productions, and Tom Holland would soon find that "reboot of the reboot" was around the corner.

3. Following the November 2014 hacking of Sony's computers, leaks surrounding a lot of Sony's potential projects became public. Not only were they trying to woo Sam Raimi back to the Spider-Man franchise to direct a brand new trilogy but emails between Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad showed that Sony were also communicating with Marvel Studios to produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man films while Sony retained "creative control, marketing and distribution".

Possibly because the Sam Raimi alternate plans were made public and probably just as much down to the financial terms of the deal, discussions between Sony and Marvel broke down, and Sony announced they'd proceed with their own slate of Spider-Man films. However, in February 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios came to an agreement and announced that they would release a new Spider-Man film, with Kevin Feige and Pascal producing (the latter through her company Pascal Pictures).

Marvel had been working to add Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for quite sometime. Initially hoping to include the character in the Phase Two film Avengers: Age Of Ultron. After the deal, Kevin Feige revealed,

"We've been thinking about [the Spider-Man film] as long as we've been thinking about Phase Three and long beforehand. [Although] Marvel doesn't announce anything officially until it's set in stone, we went forward with Plan A in October 2014, with the Plan B being, if [the deal] were to happen with Sony, how it would all shift."

The agreement is that it is very much a Sony Pictures movie... we are the creative producers. We are the ones hiring the actor, introducing him in [Civil War], and then working right now on the script and soon to be shooting."

But one thing Feige was insistent on, when Spider-Man did get his first full MCU movie it would not be an origin story, since

"There have been two retellings of that origin in the last thirteen years, so we are going to take it for granted that people know that, and the specifics of the character."

4. Captain America: Civil War would see Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Being that the film was due to start shooting in April 2015, two months after the Sony/Marvel deal was finalised, Marvel had their work cut-out to find their Peter Parker. They still managed to audition approximately 1500 young actors for the role, with Marvel reducing the field to six potential Peter Parkers.
Those actors were Asa Butterfield, Judah Lewis, Matthew Lintz, Charlie Plummer, Charlie Rowe, and of course, Tom Holland. Each of those six actors screen-tested with Robert Downey Jr. since Peter heavily interacted with Iron Man in Civil War. Tom Holland later commented on how intimidated he was but RDJ took him aside and said,

"Listen, I remember my screen-test for Iron Man. I remember how terrified I was. Just think of it as an audition. It's nothing too scary. If you get it wrong, we'll just start again. No pressure."

Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige, as well as the creative teams behind Civil War and what was to be Spider-Man: Homecoming, realized that Butterfield and Holland had emerged as the frontrunners. Holland then screen-tested with Chris Evans and became the favorite before acquiring the gig.

5. When it came to casting Spider-Man: Homecoming, Michael Keaton entered talks in April 2016 to play an at that time unspecified villain, but Keaton dropped out of discussions shortly thereafter due to scheduling conflicts with The Founder.

Marvel then turned briefly to Mark Hamill for what would be the role of Adrian Toomes/The Vulture, but after a change in schedule for Keaton's McDonald's origins film was made public they reconnected with the one-time Batman and closed the deal in late May.

6. Marisa Tomei was cast as May Parker, making her unannounced debut at the end of Captain America: Civil War. The first reports of Tomei's casting caused backlash on social media, with comic book fans opining that the actress was "too young and attractive to portray the character", especially after Aunt May had previously been depicted on screen by actresses older than Tomei.

Regarding the casting, Captain America: Civil War co-writer Stephen McFeely said that, for the MCU, they were trying to make Peter...

"...as naturalistic as possible...That's partly why his aunt isn't 80 years old; if she's the sister of his dead mother, why does she have to be two generations ahead?"

Carroll added that the creative team was looking for more of a "big sister" or someone closer in age to Peter Parker in the casting process. Still, after the negative reaction Tomei revealed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that she did make "a case to age me up, but no they didn't go for it".

7. As a nice nod to Spider-Man's first comic book appearance, Aunt May's car number plate is AMF-1562. AMF is Amazing Fantasy, 15 is the issue number, and 62 is 1962, the year Spider-Man first appeared.

8. Faculty at Parker's high school include: Kenneth Choi as Principal Morita, who previously played the Howling Commando Jim Morita in Captain America: The First Avenger. In the Principal's office, you can see photos of the Howling Commando, which hints that they are related and he is his grandson.

Martin Starr plays Mr Harrington, one of Peter Parker's high school teachers and academic decathlon coach. He too previously appeared in the MCU when he can be briefly seen in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Then he was credited simply as "Computer Nerd" whilst his character was studying for a degree, but Marvel confirmed that after graduating he went into teaching at the Midtown School of Science and Technology.

9. Jennifer Connelly voices the Spider-Man computer Karen. You may not know that her husband is Paul Bettany who prior to becoming the MCU's Vision had voiced the Iron Man computer J.A.R.V.I.S.

10. Even before Disney and Marvel Studios had worked with Sony to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a popular fan theory about Iron Man 2 was that Peter Parker was the little boy in an Iron Man mask who stands up to a killer robot and is saved by Tony Stark. Tom Holland confirmed this as official...

“I can confirm that is Peter Parker, I can confirm that. I literally had a conversation with Kevin Feige only 20 minutes ago. Maybe I’ve just done a big, old spoiler, but it’s out there now. It’s cool. I like the idea that Peter Parker has been in the universe since the beginning.”