Sony and Marvel recently debuted a peek at the new Tom Holland Spider-Man in the Captain America: Civil War trailer (watch below), Forbes caught up with directors Joe and Anthony Russo to get their take on fan feedback ranging from including Spider-Man into the movie as well as the trailer and reactions to the new costume.
On Spider-Man being included in the Captain America: Civil War trailer:
JR: We always intended to. 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.
AR: 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.
JR: 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. I think they’ll be happy.
On Spider-Man being a part of Captain America: Civil War:
AR: 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.
On Spider-Man’s costume:
JR: 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.
AR: 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.
JR: And there is still effects work that needs to be done on it.
We like making strong choices with characters so while this might be a slightly more traditional, Steve Ditko influenced suit, it is certainly in our vocabulary to develop it into something more extreme as the storytelling requires. I think there are things that people will discover when they see the film about why the suit operate the way it does, why the eyes move, all that stuff is substantiated. Everybody wants the answers yesterday but then what would be the point of seeing the movie?
On the possibility of too many versions of Spider-Man in recent years:
JR: There are pros and cons without question; there is the fatigue factor that comes with it. I’m a skeptical fan and I would look at the multiple version and I would even go, ‘Guys, give me a break. Let me wash my palette clean of whatever the last interpretation was because you’re exhausting me!’ However, there are a couple of key factors here. One of them is that he’s back in the Marvel Universe, he’s interacting with characters that you’ve never seen him interact before, it’s actually a young actor playing the part which is a new interpretation of the character and that’s what I remember about the character when I was a kid. The cons are obviously fatigue but the pros are that it could potentially be a really invigorating piece of story telling and a catalyzing interpretation of the character. At the end of the day, the purpose here is to deliver a Spider-Man that people will **** themselves over.
“Captain America: Civil War” has a May 6, 2016 release date directed by Anthony and Joe Russo starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Frank Grillo, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Emily VanCamp, William Hurt, Martin Freeman and Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther.
Synopsis:
Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.
Captain America: Civil War trailer w/Spider-Man:
