Spider-Man: Homecoming

• 1. Introduction

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  Spider-Man: Homecoming, the 2017 superhero film, hinges on one very awkward car ride. On the night of the school dance, teenager Peter Parker learns that the father of the girl he is taking is the man he has been chasing across the city. The father, a few moments later, works out that the polite boy in his passenger seat is Spider-Man. A simple date turns into the most dangerous evening of Peter's young life. The film asks what a superhero looks like when he is still a high school kid with homework, a crush and a curfew. Behind that question sit several others. How did a character owned by one studio end up inside another studio's universe? Who is the villain, and why was he written as an ordinary man? How was the film built, and how did audiences around the world respond?

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• 2. A Shared Hero

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  In November 2014, a hack of Sony's computers pushed private emails into public view. Two of them, between Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad, described a plan for Marvel Studios to produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man films. Sony would keep creative control, marketing and distribution. Talks between the studios then collapsed, and Sony prepared to carry on with its own slate of Spider-Man projects.

  In February 2015 the two companies reversed course and announced a new film, with Kevin Feige and Pascal producing, the latter through her company Pascal Pictures. This became the second Spider-Man reboot and the 16th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man would first appear in an earlier Marvel film, later revealed to be Captain America: Civil War (2016). Sony would finance and distribute the picture and keep final creative say. Either studio could end the arrangement at any time, and no money was exchanged.

  The money did move in one corner of the deal. A 2011 agreement had already given Marvel full control of Spider-Man merchandising, in return for a one-time payment of $175 million to Sony. Marvel now agreed to pay up to $35 million toward each future Spider-Man film, instead of taking its earlier five percent of revenue. That payment could shrink if a co-produced film earned more than $750 million. Marvel still received five percent of first dollar gross.

  The film's budget was $175 million. Lone Star Funds covered 25 percent of it through its LSC Film Corporation deal, and Columbia Pictures served as co-producer alongside Marvel. Feige later said Marvel had planned for both outcomes since announcing its Phase Three slate in October 2014. Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield, who had led the previous series, would not return, and Sony reportedly wanted a younger actor for the lead.

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• 3. Finding Peter Parker

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  The search for a new Spider-Man covered more than 1,500 actors before it narrowed to six. In April 2015 the names circulating included Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothée Chalamet and Liam James. Joseph Quinn, Chandler Riggs and Zachary Gordon also auditioned. Earlier reports had pointed to Logan Lerman and Dylan O'Brien as front-runners.

  The final six were Butterfield, Holland, Judah Lewis, Matt Lintz, Charlie Plummer and Charlie Rowe. Each tested opposite Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark, so the filmmakers could judge chemistry. Feige, Pascal and the Russo brothers, who directed Captain America: Civil War, watched the tests. By early June 2015 only Holland and Rowe remained, and Holland also tested with Chris Evans. Jon Bernthal advised him to show off his athletic skills on his audition tape.

  In June 2015, Marvel and Sony announced that Holland would play Spider-Man and that Jon Watts would direct. The Russos had pushed for an actor close to Peter's real age, and they praised Holland's dancing and gymnastics background. Feige and Pascal had admired his work in The Impossible (2012), Wolf Hall (2015) and In the Heart of the Sea (2015). Holland signed for six MCU films, three of them Spider-Man films.

  Holland spent a few days at the Bronx High School of Science to prepare. Other students did not believe he had been cast as Spider-Man, which he felt matched the way characters in the film never suspect Peter. He also said he wanted his version to be new and exciting, dealing with the everyday problems of a 15-year-old as well as saving the city. Getting into the costume took 25-45 minutes, depending on whether a stunt harness went underneath.

  The director's job had also been contested. In May 2015, Jonathan Levine, Ted Melfi, Jason Moore, Jared Hess and the writing team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were all under consideration.

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• 4. Ground Level

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  Jon Watts liked to say that earlier Marvel films had shown the world from the penthouse. He wanted to explore its ground level. Watts had been hunting for a coming-of-age story when he heard the new Spider-Man would be younger than past versions. He named Can't Buy Me Love (1987), Say Anything... (1989) and Almost Famous (2000) among his favorites in that genre. Feige pointed to the films of John Hughes and noted that in high school, everything feels like life or death.

  Daley and Goldstein won the writing job after being given three days to prepare a pitch. They made a list of every element from the earlier Spider-Man films and tried to avoid reusing any of it. The film would not retell the origin, since two retellings had appeared in the previous thirteen years. Uncle Ben is mentioned but never named. The writers once considered showing that Peter's wardrobe belonged to Ben, then dropped the idea because it made his death feel like a throwaway line.

  Manhattan's skyscrapers were largely off the table. The writers placed Peter in the suburbs, on a golf course, on the Staten Island Ferry, at Coney Island and in Washington, D.C. One early pitch put Spider-Man on a plane 10,000 feet in the air with no safety net. Daley argued that Peter's fear of heights at the Washington Monument works only because he is not shown swinging confidently between towers at the start.

  The stakes stayed small on purpose. A world-threatening problem would have raised the question of why the Avengers were not helping. Watts also asked his action team to avoid big swooping camera moves, and he wanted shots from drones, helicopters, cable-cams or a handheld operator chasing across a roof.

  At CinemaCon 2016, Sony revealed the title. Homecoming nodded to the high school tradition and to the character finally coming home to Marvel. The same announcement brought new classmates and a surprise for Peter's world.

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• 5. The Crowd Around Peter

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  Zendaya's Michelle, nicknamed MJ, was designed to echo Mary Jane Watson without copying her. Watts compared the character to Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club (1985) and Lindsay Weir in Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000). Zendaya called Michelle awkward but intellectual. Feige said Michelle is not obsessed with Peter the way Mary Jane sometimes is in the comics. Her full name, Michelle Jones-Watson, came out in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

  Tony Revolori's Flash Thompson became a rich, smug social media bully instead of a physical jock, shaped partly by Holland's visit to the Bronx. Revolori is a Guatemalan American actor, and he received death threats when he was cast. He gained 60 lb for the part. Jacob Batalon's Ned was built from Ned Leeds and from Ganke Lee, Miles Morales's best friend in the comics. Ned received the last name Leeds in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).

  Donald Glover plays Aaron Davis, uncle of Miles Morales in the comics. Glover had voiced Morales on the Ultimate Spider-Man television series and campaigned in 2010 to play Spider-Man on screen. Watts, aware of that campaign, asked Feige about Glover as soon as he was hired. He told Glover he would cut the character if the actor declined.

  Marisa Tomei's casting as Aunt May drew backlash on social media from fans who thought her too young. Stephen McFeely, co-writer of Civil War, argued that a nephew of a dead sister would not need an aunt two generations older. Tomei said she pitched making May older, but the filmmakers kept her age and talked about a community organizer who shapes Peter's values.

  Watts wanted the cast to reflect Queens as one of the most diverse places in the world, unlike the earlier films' mostly white high school. Marvel also avoided most characters from previous Spider-Man films. That meant no Daily Bugle and no Mary Jane Watson, though Downey's Tony Stark stayed as a mentor, for a reported $10 million. Laura Harrier said the young cast kept calling themselves The Breakfast Club.

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• 6. A Regular Guy Villain

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  Watts did not want a villain who might attract the Avengers. He pictured Adrian Toomes as a regular guy, closer to John C. Reilly's Nova Corpsman Rhomann Dey in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) than to Thanos or Ultron. That fit a hero who is a regular kid, and it gave Peter an enemy he could actually beat while still learning his powers. Co-producer Eric Hauserman Carroll called Toomes "the dark Tony Stark", a businessman looking out for his kids.

  Michael Keaton did not rush into the role. In April 2016 he entered talks, then dropped out over a scheduling clash with The Founder (2016). John Leguizamo was approached and began negotiating. When Keaton's schedule changed, Marvel asked Leguizamo to step aside and offered him another part, which he found "tiny" and declined. Mark Hamill had been interested as a fallback. Keaton closed the deal in late May. He had no qualms about another comic book role after playing Batman for Tim Burton in 1989 and 1992, and he said parts of Toomes made you think, "I might see his point."

  The story sets Toomes's grievance in the cleanup after the Battle of New York in 2012. His salvage company is pushed aside by the Department of Damage Control, a partnership between Tony Stark and the U.S. government. He keeps scavenged alien technology and builds weapons and a winged suit. Watts said the Damage Control idea matched the story he wanted to tell and raised practical questions that drove the plot.

  Feige felt the film would fail if the twist about Liz's father did not land. The team worked backwards and forwards from it to make it believable. Goldstein named the drive to the dance as the moment he was proudest of. Daley said the writers were giddy over the twist, which multiplied the tension of meeting a crush's father by 1,000.

  The climax includes an homage Feige had wanted for years, from The Amazing Spider-Man issue 33 (1966), with Peter trapped under rubble. Watts also wanted the villain to be redeemable, so a first post-credits scene shows Toomes protecting Peter from another villain.

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• 7. Building the Film

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  Principal photography began on the 20th of June 2016 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, under the working title Summer of George. Salvatore Totino was the director of photography. Atlanta locations included Grady High School, Piedmont Park and the Georgia World Congress Center. Holland noted that building New York sets in Atlanta was cheaper than filming in the real city. The crew built a replica of the Staten Island Ferry that could split in 10-12 seconds and flood with 40,000 gallons of water in 8 seconds.

  In September 2016 the production moved to New York, shooting in Astoria, Sunnyside, St. George on Staten Island and Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn. Principal photography wrapped in New York on the 2nd of October 2016. Some filming followed in Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate. The script kept changing along the way. Watts and his childhood friend Christopher Ford rewrote the Goldstein and Daley drafts, and Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers joined to write while the cameras were rolling.

  Spider-Man's suit became a gadget in its own right. The chest logo is a drone, and the suit has an AI system, a holographic interface, a parachute, a tracker for Stark, a heater and an airbag. Stark adds a "training wheels" protocol to limit Peter's access at first. Carroll compared the web-shooter settings to those of a DSLR camera.

  Eight companies handled effects, among them Sony Pictures Imageworks, Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain and Trixter. Executive producer Victoria Alonso first wanted a fresh look and did not want Imageworks involved, but changed her mind after seeing its test material. Trixter delivered over 300 shots, starting with the Grand Central Terminal opening. Digital Domain scanned a real Staten Island Ferry with LIDAR. Iron Man's Mark XLVII armor is a recolored Mark XLVI because Sony lacked the budget for a new one.

  Michael Giacchino composed the score, a fact Feige revealed by accident while promoting Doctor Strange. Recording began on the 11th of April 2017 and the score includes the theme from the 1960s animated series. Reshoots in March 2017 added Captain America fitness videos, and a final credits scene has him praising patience to an audience that has just waited through the credits. Watts finished the film at the beginning of June 2017.

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• 8. Selling and Earning

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  The first trailer premiered on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on the 8th of December 2016. Within a week, it and an international version had been viewed over 266 million times. Two shots in it were made only for marketing: the Vulture descending through a hotel atrium and Spider-Man swinging beside Iron Man. Critics disliked the domestic poster's "floating head" style. Sony partnered with ESPN CreativeWorks on ads tied to the 2017 NBA Finals. A cafe in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills served Spider Curry, and a virtual reality experience launched for free. The campaign generated over $140 million in media value, more than for any earlier Spider-Man film.

  The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on the 28th of June 2017. It reached the United Kingdom on the 5th of July and opened in 56 international markets on the 6th. The United States release followed on the 7th of July in 4,348 theaters. Sony had moved the date up from the 28th of July.

  The opening weekend in the United States and Canada brought in $117 million, the top film that weekend, including $50.9 million on opening day. That fell short of Spider-Man 3's $151.1 million debut in 2007. Abroad, the film earned $140.5 million in its first weekend, the highest opening ever for a Spider-Man film. China contributed $115.7 million by September 2017, South Korea $51.4 million and the United Kingdom $34.8 million. The worldwide total reached $880.9 million, including $334.9 million in the United States and Canada. That made it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2017 and the second-most-successful Spider-Man film. Deadline Hollywood calculated a net profit of $200.1 million.

  Critics praised the light tone, the focus on Peter's high school life and the acting, especially by Holland and Keaton. Metacritic gave it 73 out of 100, based on 51 critics, and audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an "A". Mike Ryan at Uproxx called it the best Spider-Man film yet.

  The story continued with Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). A new trilogy from Sony and Marvel Studios is in development, beginning with Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026).

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