Iron Spider and Red Hulk were almost in Captain America: Civil War

Among many other things, Captain America: Civil War is an impressive juggling act; It featured a ton of super-powered heroes - some of whom we hadn't even met yet - and gave them all a valid reason to fight one another. Zeroing in on which characters to use (and how to use them) took the Russo Brothers months, and during a recent interview they revealed that Red Hulk - whom comic book fans will know is General Thaddeus Ross, played by William Hurt in the movie - almost made the cut:

"We had so many characters in that movie as it was", Joe Russo told ComicBook.com. "We consider everything, obviously, but with so many characters in that movie as it was to try and entertain adding another character and to get to the Red Hulk, you have to add a backstory. You have to substantiate the narrative to get to that. [Thaddeus Ross], on our list of priorities, he was there sort of as the government’s agenda and not to add another complicated super powered character to the mix".

"We had a board when we started this process", Russo continued, "of the movies with these Avengers characters that have ever graced the screen in a Marvel film and a list of characters that we have at our disposal that haven’t graced the screen. We spent the last six to eight months crafting stories around the cornucopia of characters at our disposal so anything is possible".

Russo later added that the Iron Spider suit "falls in that category of anything’s possible", and given that Robert Downey Jr. is starring in Spider-Man: Homecoming I would not be surprised if Tom Holland's hero sports the Stark-powered duds at some point next year.

Directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, and starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman, Tom Holland, Anthony Mackie, and Sebastian Stan, Captain America: Civil War arrives in digital format in the US on September 2. The Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD hit the UK on September 5 and the US on September 13. 

Images: Marvel 

Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.