The thing you spent way too much time dreaming about is finally happening. No, not Spider-Man getting another movie reboot, despite the last film coming out just two years ago. But rather the details of that reboot, the most important detail being that Sony and Marvel have unbelievably teamed up to bring Spider-Man where he belongs; into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Titled Spider-Man: Homecoming, the latest Spider-Man reboot will follow the character’s introduction in this summer’s Captain America: Civil War. Directed by Jon Watts, written by Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley, and starring Tom Holland as the wall-crawler, Spider-Man: Homecoming is still over a year away but we already know a whole lot about the film that makes us way too excited for its July 7th, 2017 release date.
Let’s take a look at the facts we know already and what we’re most excited about with the 12 Things We Know So Far About Spider-Man: Homecoming.
12. IT’S A MARVEL MOVIE… DISTRIBUTED BY SONY
When it was announced that Marvel and Sony were miraculously sharing the rights to Spider-Man, no one knew many of the details. That’s because even Marvel and Sony didn’t know the details, plans and contracts were being worked out and are still being worked out to this day. But as the dust has settled we’ve learned some new information from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who has revealed that Spider-Man: Homecoming will very much be a Marvel Studios film.
Though Sony Pictures is producing alongside Marvel Studios, Feige has made it clear that Marvel is dealing with the creative side, as they hired Tom Holland, they’re orchestrating his introduction into the MCU, and they’re going to make sure that everything is on par with their past Marvel films. This isn’t some cheap rights-sharing plan to slap Marvel’s name on the same old product; this is Spider-Man’s homecoming to Marvel, and we hope it can live up to the hype we’re prematurely assigning to it.
11. “HOMECOMING” HINTS AT A 1984 COMIC BOOK STORYLINE
“Homecoming” is a great subtitle for a number of reasons. One, it’s a subtitle and not a number, which brings it firmly within Marvel’s movie naming conventions of subtitling every film to explain what’s going on (excepting the Iron Man franchise, of course). Two, it’s emotionally rewarding for fans who see the film as Spider-Man finally coming home to Marvel where he belongs. But mostly, “Homecoming” is a great subtitle because we get to speculate on what it could mean for the next year.
The title of The Amazing Spider-Man #252, Homecoming was the comic book world’s introduction to Spider-Man’s black costume. Set after Spider-Man returned to earth after the epic Secret Wars miniseries, this storyline could tell us a lot about the eventual storyline of Spider-Man: Homecoming. For instance, could Spider-Man be coming home after the potentially world-altering events of Civil War? Could the black suit make an appearance for the first time since Spider-Man 3, and be done right this time? For now, all we do know is that Marvel likes sprinkling clues in for fans to find, and some of those clues may lie in 1984’s The Amazing Spider-Man No. 252.
10. VULTURE IS (PROBABLY) THE VILLAIN
Sam Raimi’s villain of choice for the scrapped Spider-Man 4 may finally be coming to the big screen, and it will be exciting to see where they take it after so many villains have been used up in previous films. Though many villains never got their fair share of screen time across five often crowded Spider-Man films – we’re looking at you Venom, Rhino, Sandman, and Dane DeHaan’s Green Goblin – a Spider-Man: Homecoming film that features Vulture could be an exciting new take on a Spider-Man villain.
Reported to be the sole villain in the film in an effort to maximize the impact, Vulture is often portrayed in the comics as an old man with a flying mechanical suit. And while we’ve seen the whole mech-suit thing done over and over in Marvel films, it would be interesting to see a teenaged Spider-Man face off against a villain that is so much older than him, perhaps three or four times his age. It’s also good to see the film attempt new things, rather than go the Superman route by pretending the only villains in his world are Lex Luthor and Zod.
9. IT WILL BE A COMING OF AGE STORY
Director Jon Watts and writers Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley have confirmed that their version of Spider-Man will be a coming of age story that focuses largely on a teenaged Peter Parker. Watts has gone on record saying “we’re really going to see Peter Parker in high school and get deeper into that side of it. He’s just 15 now.” So we know that Spider-Man: Homecoming won’t see an actor in his late 20s portray Peter in high-school just long enough to graduate by the second film; this time his high-school life will be as important as the villains he’s fighting.
More exciting than the coming of age revelation is Kevin Feige’s comments that the film will “be a ‘John Hughes’ movie.” And if that means heart and humor and a character that doesn’t fit into your traditional high school moulds, then that sounds like a pretty perfect take for Spider-Man.
8. EVERY MARVEL CHARACTER IS INVITED
Kevin Feige has said that there are no restrictions on which MCU characters can or can’t appear in the Spider-Man films; meaning Marvel’s deal with Sony is more extensive than originally thought. And since we now know that the new Spider-Man franchise will all essentially be Marvel films, we expect that a lot of our favorite heroes will be popping up now and then to trade some one-liners with Spider-Man and help him fight a battle or two.
Feige has said that Spider-Man “is in the universe now, and the fun of the universe is that characters go back and forth.” And while that gets us excited for Spider-Man joining The Avengers in the future, in the near-term it means that Spider-Man can benefit from the Marvel Cinematic Universe connectivity that’s been built up over the years. So although the film is a reboot, we can expect to see established Marvel plotlines and characters come through and provide us with a level of depth and excitement that a standalone Spider-Man film could’ve never had before.
7. AUNT MAY ISN’T THE OLD LADY YOU THINK SHE IS
Academy Award winning actress Sally Field didn’t have to hide her opinions when she recently spoke of the two Amazing Spider-Man films that she was a part of. Having played Aunt May across from Andrew Garfield’s perfect portrayal of Peter Parker, Sally Field recently said that Aunt May was a poorly drawn character with nothing to do and that she found acting in the two Amazing Spider-Man films a bore; more or less. What she actually said was that “You can’t put ten pounds of s**t in a five-pound bag,” referring to how little acting was required to give life to the character as it was written.
Add to Field’s comments the fact that Sony was at one point developing a spinoff starring Aunt May, and you get the sense that they’re eager to change things a little bit and move Aunt May away from being a concerned mother figure and into an active human character. And that’s where Marisa Tomei comes in. The youngest actor to play Aunt May on screen yet, Tomei could bring a sense of humor and willingness to get involved that we’ve never seen from Aunt May before, thus setting her up to be a big part of the Spider-Man franchise going forward.
6. JONAH JAMESON WILL BE THERE, BUT NOT PLAYED BY WHO YOU HOPE
We all wanted J.K. Simmons back as Jameson so that he could “Judi Dench” the role and inhabit the personality of everyone’s favourite grumpy newsman forever. He was perfect in the role throughout Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy, and his work since (we’re looking at you Whiplash) has proven how much more he can elevate a role like Jameson. What’s more, Simmons has even gone on record saying that he’d love to play Jameson again in a film, and if that wasn’t enough, he’s currently voicing Jameson in Marvel’s own Ultimate Spider-Man animated TV series. So you’d think the stars would be aligned for Simmons’ return as J. Jonah Jameson, but you’d be wrong.
While it’s been reported that Marvel is eyeing other actors for the role – most notably Ice Cube – the biggest nail in the J.K. Simmons coffin was when he was cast as Commissioner Gordon in Justice League; thus setting him up to be an integral part of the competing DC Universe’s movie plans for the foreseeable future. And if you can’t imagine a world in which one of DC’s biggest stars crosses over to the MCU to yell for pictures of Spider-Man, you’re right, there isn’t a world where that’s possible. So the hope of J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is dead; long live J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.
5. IT’S NOT AN ORIGIN STORY
We get it. Peter Parker is a nerd. His Uncle Ben dies. He learns to be a super-hero. He has a tough time. We’ve seen the story over and over again in comics and TV series and video games and movies. We don’t need to see it again, and thankfully Sony and Marvel know this. With Spider-Man: Homecoming, they’re sparing us the origin story.
Supposedly being introduced in Civil War as just another superhero who’s been swinging around New York for a while, Spider-Man will be fully established by the time he comes home in Homecoming. It’s an exciting proposition to swing into the Spider-Man universe without spending half the movie focusing on Peter in street clothes, as this way we can jump right into the action and get more bang for our buck. Sure, we want a well-rounded film that has richly drawn characters and a memorable plot, but what we don’t need is an hour of hand-holding to get us there. Thankfully with Spider-Man: Homecoming, we’ll get the Spider-Man we know without having to deal with the origin story we know even better.
4. A STARK INDUSTRIES SUIT WILL BE PRESENT
Judging from the Captain America: Civil War trailer, and the first real look we have at the new Spider-Man in motion, it’s clear that there’s some fancy tech working underneath the red and blue webbing of Spidey’s suit. One look at the eyes narrowing or the electric sound that accompanies the movement and you can tell; this is Stark Industries technology at its very finest.
Since we know that Spider-Man will be on team Iron-Man, we can assume that Civil War will be at least loosely following the comics and will show Stark’s relationship with Peter Parker as he takes him under his wing in exchange for siding with him. It’s then that Stark helps Peter with his Spider-Man costume and gives him a few necessary upgrades – after all, genius or not, Peter Parker doesn’t have the billions of dollars and the lab space to make something as kick-ass as he’ll no doubt have in the film. From there we can assume that Parker will bring his new suit home with him for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and in true Marvel fashion it will most likely be upgrades and tricked out quite a bit by then.
3. SONY HAS (HOPEFULLY) LEARNED FROM ITS MISTAKES
After the box-office and critical disappointment that was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony seemed at a loss with what to do with its flagship franchise. Though they had announced prior to the film a plan to churn out one new Spider-Man film a year, spinoffs and shared universes were axed following TASM 2. With the lowest gross of any of the five Spider-Man films, audiences just weren’t embracing the wall-crawler the way Sony wanted them to, and then the unthinkable happened; Marvel stepped in to take over.
Though Sony is still very much involved with Spider-Man: Homecoming, it’s safe to say that they’ve learned their mistakes and they’ll keep their meddling to a minimum; after all, it didn’t work at all with the last two Spider-Man films. While most people know the story of how Sony cut up each entry in the Amazing Spider-Man franchise at the last minute in order to tie in their planned Spider-Man cinematic universe, Marvel has a much better track record with these things, and we can’t see Sony getting burned by the same mistakes for a third time.
2. MICHAEL KEATON IS IN TALKS TO STAR AS THE VILLAIN
Remember how Birdman brilliantly cast Michael Keaton as the washed up star of a superhero franchise and criticized the entire superhero film industry? Do you recall Michael Keaton as DC’s infamous Caped Crusader in 1989’s Batman? Well, Michael Keaton and Marvel may soon be hoping you forget all that, because Keaton is in talks for a main role in Homecoming, and this time he’s crossing over to the dark side to play the villain.
Currently in talks to star opposite Tom Holland as what may be the Vulture, Keaton is an exciting addition to Spider-Man: Homecoming and will give the film that Marvel flair of having an Oscar-nominated/winning actor in a main villain role. Following in the footsteps of Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, Ben Kingsley, Josh Brolin, and Robert Redford, Keaton’s involvement in Homecoming should give it a memorable performance that could land on one side of magnetically dark (Birdman) or campy and fun (Beetlejuice). Either way, we’re game.
1. JUDGING FROM THE TITLE ART, IT WILL BE PLAYFUL
Forget the schizophrenic darkness and earnest sweetness of the Amazing Spider-Man franchise, and ignore the meme-tastic awkwardness of dancing emo Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3, because Spider-Man: Homecoming looks to be a playful and bright Marvel movie with a distinctly entertaining vibe. Take one look at the movie logo and you see a brightly-colored comic book-inspired title, one that screams “Look at me, I’m a different movie than the other five!”
Judging by the credentials of those behind the camera and the information they’ve given about the production so far, the title art just backs up what we already know about Spider-Man: Homecoming; it’s going to be different. Finally at home in the Marvel Universe, Homecoming can now take on the Marvel trademark of being light and quippy while still packing a punch and being a hell of a time at the movies. It doesn’t have to worry about the trend of dark and gritty reboots and it can go back to what made Spider-Man the most popular superhero in the world in the first place; humor and fun.
http://screenrant.com/spider-man-homecoming-what-we-know/ 
Apr 19 2016, 10:04 PM
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