Henry Faherty
The biggest question on everyone’s mind before the second trailer for “Captain America: Civil War” was released last week was if the introduction of the newly-cast Spider-Man would be shown. And fans got their wish; there was a brief clip at the tail-end of the trailer where the web-slinging hero, played by Tom Holland, landed onto the battlefield and gave a snappy one-liner to the audience.
Directors of “Civil War”, Anthony and Joe Russo, were unknowns before they were tasked with tackling the second film featuring the patriotic hero, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”. But after the huge praise the film received by both critics and moviegoers, they instantly jumped onto the list for filmmakers to watch.
And now with the third entry in the title character’s series, Spider-Man/Peter Parker will be introduced for the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Previously, Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield played the dual-role, but with this third reboot a new actor (as well as a new design) had to be established. And with the May release date quickly creeping up, fans are finally getting a peak behind-the-scenes of the superhero standoff. In a recent interview with Forbes, the co-directors had plenty to say about going about the design and tone of Spider-Man.
Joe Russo: 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.
Anthony Russo: 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.
Joe Russo: And there is still effects work that needs to be done on it.
So there’s still a lot to see in “Civil War”, especially in terms of the teen hero. And it’s a relief that the brothers are able to make their stamp on the character, even if that just means sticking to the comic books, which should please most in the long run. But unbeknownst to many, Spider-Man wasn’t meant to appear before Phase 3 (which this film is starting) of Marvel anyway, so the directors seemed like the introduction went just as planned.
Joe Russo: 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.
Anthony Russo: 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.
Joe Russo: 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.
They are definitely marketing the hero quite smartly. We still don’t know how much (or how little) Spider-Man will have on the overall story. And according to the filmmakers, he has a different type of role compared to the other characters involved in the conflict.
Anthony Russo: 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.
Along with Spider-Man’s involvement, there’s no telling how the character might change and develop in the film, and in the future. The same goes for the central characters like Captain America and Iron Man. So Holland’s character should have a good heft of surprises still awaiting fans.
Joe Russo: Without question. 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?
No matter the case, seeing Spider-Man again is a nice addition to the already-packed film. And the brothers clearly are aware of how to handle, develop, and design such an iconic character.
“Captain America: Civil War” will be released on May 6.
