Spider-Man: Brand New Day is almost upon us. The latest Spider-Man movie swings into cinemas later this month, and to celebrate, we're revisiting Tom Holland's MCU back catalogue with a series of Time Capsule features, kicking off with Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Pulled from the August 2017 issue of Total Film magazine, this cover report features fascinating contributions from Tom Holland and the cast, director Jon Watts, MCU head honcho Kevin Feige and more, discussing the first entry in their high school trilogy, prior to the film's release.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is one of the year's most exciting new movies, and now is the perfect time to revisit Peter Parker's MCU oeuvre ahead of the latest entry. Be sure to join us and read along as we revisit a new entry each week. But for now, let's time travel back to the MCU's 2017 heyday...
Web Culture
"My poor legs, man."
Tom Holland is sharing the pain of being Spider-Man. "He's one of those characters who's always squatting and jumping and flying," explains the actor. Hence the sore pins, among other ailments. Playing Marvel's webslinger required "constant physicality" from Holland, in order to avoid a pitfall common to comic-book movies. "I often find in superhero films that as soon as the hero puts their mask on, you lose the actor," he says. "That was something I wanted to avoid." The downside? "It sort of tired me out a bit," he sighs. The upside? "But, you know, I'm Spider-Man," he grins. "I had the best time of my life!"
Bright, sincere, quick with a quip, Tom Holland is Spider-Man. Obviously not the first, probably not the last but still a seminal Spidey: the first to feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as seen in last year's Captain America: Civil War and now in Spider- Man: Homecoming. "It's just the latest in a number of unbelievable Marvel dreams coming true, right?" asks Marvel Studios president/über-producer Kevin Feige. Whichever way you look at it, having Spidey become an MVP of the MCU is a big deal, he says. "It feels so, on the one hand, incredible; and on the other hand, it just feels perfect."
The character's membership of the MCU is the result of a rights-sharing deal between Sony's Columbia Pictures – producers of the five previous Spider-flicks – and Marvel Studios. The latter's excitement at bagging access to Marvel Comics' most famous son is plain to see; just look at the new movie's none-more-meta title…
"One of the reasons it's called Homecoming is because it feels right that Spider-Man can finally inhabit the world, the full Marvel world, from which he came," Feige says. The idea of a shared Marvel universe dates all the way back to Stan Lee's '60s salad days; the very first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (March 1963) guest-starred the Fantastic Four. Having Spidey finally rub shoulders on screen with his fellow super-beings creates a crucial point of difference from the earlier Spider-Man movies, where our hero stood bravely, if implausibly, alone against foe after genetically altered foe.
Not only that, Homecoming gives us the MCU's first juvenile protagonist (unless you count Baby Groot). "This is the first look at what it's like to grow up in a world where aliens poured into the city when you were eight years old," says Feige, alluding to Avengers Assemble's Chitauri invasion. "What's it like, growing up there? And then finding yourself with powers equal to, or greater than, these heroes you've read about or admired?"
World wide web
Just imagine, he continues, meeting them all at once, and scrapping with half of them, as seen in Civil War. "And then you have to go back to school, study for exams, when all you want to do now is be an Avenger; and you're secretly someone that hangs out with Tony Stark, yet who still needs to be home at a certain hour, otherwise your aunt will worry."
Never mind the great power and great responsibility – it's the great number of everyday woes that have kept Spider-Man so relatable for more than half a century, says Feige. It's also what sets him apart from the gods and millionaires of the MCU, "who sometimes quite literally live in ivory towers – either down the street in Manhattan or across the universe in Asgard."
Homecoming offers an earthly contrast to the current cosmic concerns of the MCU – last year's Doctor Strange, this summer's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War (more on that one later). "[Homecoming] feels like a very grounded version of what a superhero movie can be," says Holland. "I think the best thing that [director] Jon Watts has done is that, if you took away all the Spider-Man scenes, it would still be a great movie. It's really a story about the character, how grounded he is in reality."
Grounded, then, would seem to be the buzzword. It was also the buzzword for post-Raimi reboot The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), an aspiration somewhat undermined by having a giant CG man-reptile as its baddie. Plus, with the late-twentysomething Andrew Garfield in the lead role, it had a Peter Parker who seemed a bit more grown-up and un-nerdy than you expect from high-school Spidey. Homecoming promises to stick a bit closer to the source material. "He's definitely not a cool kid," says Holland of his out-of-costume character. "He's a super-bright super-geek who's very passionate about doing well at school."
One of the reasons it's called Homecoming is because it feels right that Spider-Man can finally inhabit the world, the full Marvel world, from which he came
Kevin Feige
The star took cues from Ultimate Spider-Man, the noughties comic-book strand that retold our hero's teenage origin story with modern trappings. Kevin Feige, meanwhile, cites "the first dozen issues or so" of Stan Lee/Steve Ditko's template-setting run. "Those first years where [Peter] was based in high school, meeting characters for the first time, building a group of friends that made up part of his ensemble… those were very much influences on this movie."
But one key inspiration isn't rooted in Marvel comics old or new. "If you know John Hughes, or are a fan of John Hughes, you'll absolutely see that influence on the movie," says Feige, doffing a metaphorical cap to the writer/director/producer who rescued the teen flick from the sticky mitts of the Porky's/Screwballs set with his indelible '80s run: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off…
Homaging Hughes isn't just for nostalgic feels – it's a way of staying true to the MCU modus operandi, explains Feige: "We want to do different genres every time, and graft different genres onto our characters. And doing a John Hughes high-school adventure is something we've always wanted to do; we've been fans since we were kids. And how happy it's made us that we were actually able to do it on Homecoming!"
Which defining trait of Hughes' cinematic syllabus will the movie most embrace? The humor? The emotion? The impossible-to-separate-from-the- images soundtracks? "All of the above," laughs Feige. "All of the above!" For director Jon Watts, Homecoming's kid's-eye perspective is something that particularly chimes with Hughes' work.
"I've always felt that John Hughes movies were about teenagers, about letting them be themselves on screen and letting them talk," says the helmer of the kid-centric Cop Car (his 2015 breakout). "The movies didn't feel written and produced by adults."
Old school
Homecoming may not contain any Molly Ringwald cameos (as far as we know…), but does feature two Hughes alumni: Michael Keaton (1983's Hughes-scripted Mr. Mom) and Robert Downey Jr. (1985's Weird Science). And then there's actor/singer Zendaya who, as Peter's classmate Michelle, may remind viewers of a classic Hughes heroine.
"For me, she's the Ally Sheedy character [Allison] in The Breakfast Club," says Watts. As trailer-watchers will already have seen, Michelle is set to steal scenes with well-aimed barbs from the sidelines. "I remember a lot of people like that in my high school," recalls Watts. "And the idea of having the weirdo, outsider, wisecracking kid commenting on a scene… I really wanted to have that in this movie. And Zendaya was perfect at it. She has a lot of good lines."
To prep his cast, Watts dished out DVDs of The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, as well as Cameron Crowe rom-dram Say Anything… (1989). It turns out, though, that actor Laura Harrier had done her research without even realising it. "The funny thing is, those John Hughes movies take place in Evanston, Illinois, which is where I went to high school," she reveals. "Jon was like, 'This is so crazy, that you lived in this place that we're basing the movie on!'"
Harrier's role, meanwhile, is a significant one in Spider-history. "I play Liz Allan, who was kind of Peter's first love interest and girlfriend in the comics," she says. The character may've existed since '62 (she appeared in Spidey's debut, Amazing Fantasy, issue 15), but hasn't been seen on the big screen before. "I think she's really unlike any of the women previously seen in [the Spider-Man movies]," Harrier says. "She's very academic, very focused on school and getting into university. She's not really concerned with boys or any of that stuff."
So what happens when Peter, in Harrier's words, "kind of throws himself into her life"? "I don't think she notices him at first," she laughs. "But she's a big fan of Spider-Man!" Classic Parker luck, in other words. "Nothing ever really works out perfectly for Peter," Watts says, summarising the character's entire history in eight words. "He tries to do his best, but he's filled with a lot of self-doubt, and he screws up, and he isn't quite sure how he fits into the world."
Lest that all sound a bit angsty, like a feature-length version of The Breakfast Club's confession-circle scene, there is an upside. "Going into this movie, I wanted to capture the feeling of what it would be like if you were 15 and had these superpowers," Watts explains. "In my interpretation, it would be amazing. It'd be so much fun, so exciting, and I wanted to capture that exuberance." Happily, Watts had a lead who was well up for it. "[Exuberance] is something Tom can do very, very well," he says. "You can tell when he's excited."
Just don't mention the mask. "You don't get used to it, man. You never get used to it," says Holland, wincing at the memory of donning Spidey's red balaclava. "It looks great, and the people who made it did a brilliant job. But if you're claustrophobic, then Spider-Man is not the job for you!" Being able to hear clearly wasn't as big a problem as you might expect. Visibility, though… "That was definitely an issue, and something we had to address. Because I just couldn't see anything, they'd say to me, 'Right, can you jump off this building and land on that pole?' And I'd be like, 'Well, I can't even see the pole…'" Holland says it took a little trial-and- error with the Spider-cossie's lenses, but before long "we were able to start banging out some cool stunts!"
Cool indeed. It seems the star wowed the filmmakers with more than just his acting chops. After hailing his lead's "unbelievable charisma, charm and humour", Kevin Feige adds: "And the bonus, which none of us could have predicted, is that Tom Holland is also the best Spider-Man stuntman that has ever existed."
Vulture wars
Feige credits Holland's dance training (which led to the actor's big break, hoofing the title role in Billy Elliott The Musical in the West End in the late noughties). Being so nimble-footed allowed him to achieve a first for any big-screen Spidey, the producer says.
"It's never been like that on any of the other films, where the actor playing [Spider-Man] is also the best at that character's movements," Feige marvels. "Of course, we had plenty of wonderful stuntmen on the movie who would do things that weren't deemed safe for Tom." (Such as landing on his face.) Feige, however, promises that all of Spidey's movements are all Tom, "whether he's actually in the costume or he's doing motion capture."
Top marks for Holland – but what about the character himself? Haven't we already seen Spider-Man do whatever a spider can many times over? Does Homecoming put a fresh spin on all the "squatting and jumping and flying"? Jon Watts believes it does. At the start of pre-production, he and his effects team drew up a to-don't list. "We made a rule: to never break the laws of physics," he reveals. "We also tried – with a few exceptions – to film it in a way that could actually be filmed." He elaborates: "So, no cameras moving at 1,000 miles an hour. No impossible videogame shots."
Watts wanted it as close as possible to how a person would film Spider-Man if he were an actual, real-life, super- teenager. "A large percentage" of the film reaches that realism, he reckons. Moreover, the new style "fit into the overall conceptual idea that this is a rounded story about a kid, at the ground level of this universe".
"I often find in superhero films that as soon as the hero puts their mask on, you lose the actor. That was something I wanted to avoid."
Tom Holland
The keep-it-grounded mantra also extends to Spider-Man: Homecoming's villain. Despite the fact that he's a mechanically winged fiend called The Vulture. Real name Adrian Toomes, he's a character who's been around since the earliest days of The Amazing Spider-Man (issue two, in fact: 'Duel To The Death With The Vulture!'), and was in line to be the big bad of Sam Raimi's cancelled Spider-Man 4. Finally flapping onto the big screen, Homecoming intros him as the disgruntled head of an NY salvaging company who builds his wings from discarded Chitauri tech.
What makes The Vulture extraordinary as a villain is that he's so… ordinary. "He's just a working-class guy who built up a business, and he feels like he's been cheated – and then he has an opportunity to do something about it," says Michael Keaton of his first bona-fide comic- book role since 1992's Batman Returns. They may be opposite ends of the moral spectrum, but hero and villain have a lot in common.
"If you can have a regular kid who becomes a superhero, why not have a regular guy who becomes a – quote unquote – 'supervillain'?" asks Jon Watts. I thought it would be fun to explore that." Fun – and fear-inducing. "That's what makes him so scary in this movie," reckons Holland. "That he's this everyday bloke who wants to stand up for himself, you know? I think that's what makes him different from any supervillain you've seen before."
That, and the fact that he's Batman. And Birdman. With all that masked-man baggage, did Keaton have any qualms about signing on? "No, not really!" he says simply. And how was it on the other side of the camera, directing a former Bruce Wayne? "I mean, he was at the centre of one of the most iconic superhero movies of all time. So, he gets it," says Watts. Still, discussion didn't focus on any pre-established rules of the genre. "If anything, it was talking to him about getting away from the broader strokes of [superhero movies] and getting down to a character level… we never talked about [Homecoming] as a superhero movie, only as a character drama."
A character drama with some big-name superheroes. There's an appearance by Chris Evans' Captain America, and a supporting slot for Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) that picks up where he and Spidey left off. "It's absolutely a continuation from Civil War," says Holland, referencing Stark's discovery/recruitment of Spidey. "The stakes are definitely higher now, because Peter's fighting his own battles, rather than Tony's battles."
At least he has some state-of-the-art Stark tech on his side, in the form of a gadget-stuffed Spider-suit. Fitted with its own AI, it can perform all sorts of tricks – even filling plot holes! "For the first time we find ourselves not needing to justify how a high-school kid could build this unbelievable, movie-quality superhero suit," says Feige wryly. Over the course of the movie, Peter discovers more and more of his unitard's talents – "some of which are helpful, and some which get in the way of his natural abilities", he teases.
Iron spider
For a web-shooting preview of the suit, see Civil War's post-credits sting. Another key thread from that movie is woven into Watts' story. Expect Homecoming to explore the repercussions of drafting a 15-year-old lad into a superhero smackdown. "Has Tony intentionally chosen to be a mentor?" Watts asks. "Or was he just using the kid to get him out of a bad situation? Where do they go from here?"
Something else viewers can expect: giggles. "The scenes with [Tom and Robert] go to some crazy, unexpected places," smiles Watts. "Having a background in comedy [including instalments of The Onion News Network], I loved that and didn't want to stop them. I just kept rolling and rolling to see what would happen!" And when the cameras (finally) stopped rolling, Holland found that RDJ "is as cool as you would hope, off-screen… a really fun dude. And it's just so fantastic for me, in my first Spider-Man movie, to have the security of a heavy hitter like him helping me along the way."
Tony Stark brings his own 'security' with him in the form of bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). It's Happy's first MCU appearance since Iron Man 3 – and it looks like he might steal some of his boss' thunder… "I think the relationship audiences are really going to enjoy and take a lot away from is the one between Peter and Happy," reveals Holland. "It's a really funny sort of big brother/little brother dynamic. I think people will be begging to see more of it in movies to come."
Speaking of which, the new MCU Spidey has already lined up his third gig – next year's Avengers: Infinity War. Badgered for specifics, Holland gives with one hand and takes with the other. He promises "a very exciting version of Spider-Man. It's going to be a lot of fun. I mean, audiences are not ready for this film; it's going to be absolutely huge, epic… But if I'm honest, I genuinely don't know anything about it. I haven't read the script, I don't know the whole story… but it is going to be crazy!"
If Holland's comments suggest Spidey doesn't have one of Infinity War's bigger roles (there's a lot to cram in, after all), he'll be back center-stage in his second solo Spider-movie, slated for 2019. All being well (i.e. jumbo box office for Homecoming), the sequel – and threequel – will follow the one-school-year-at-a-time Harry Potter template. "We thought it would be fun not to rush through the high-school years, but rather build a trilogy around sophomore/junior/senior year," says Feige. "As a structure for following Peter as he grows – which is what the comics did, as well as Harry Potter."
Watts is well on board with the notion of watching Peter grow up at a more measured pace. "I'm always disappointed when he graduates high school," he says, alluding to earlier movies (such as 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which kicks off with gowns and speeches). "I'd like to not feel like the story's making massive jumps."
While he won't spill any sequel details ("I'm keeping everything to myself right now!"), Holland offers a tidbit. "I think we have an opening for the second one," he says with some excitement. "I was talking to Jon about it, about what he'd like to do to open up the story… and it's a pretty awesome idea – very cool, very funny."
Whatever shape the sequel takes, Watts certainly has a reservoir of ideas to draw on; while researching Homecoming, he says, "I felt like a lawyer preparing for a case… I watched everything [Spider-Man-related] I could get my hands on – all the cartoons as well!"
As he immersed himself in Peter Parker's world, on screen and on page, he made a 'laundry list' of images, concepts, cool details. Spider-fans can expect some of those ideas to filter into Homecoming in the form of ("hopefully not too obvious") Easter eggs, while others may well work their way into future movies.
It seems that the secret of Spidey's success – of his ability to reboot smoothly – isn't just his relatability. It's the sheer mountain of source material. "There are so many storylines in the comics," muses Holland, "so many things that people don't know about, that we will never run out of ideas, or different versions of ideas. We'll be OK." The star's legs may hurt, but Spider-Man's look pretty sturdy.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day releases on July 31 in the US, and July 29 in the UK. For more upcoming superhero movies, check out our guides to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows that have been confirmed.
