Spider-Man: Homecoming is being championed as the “return” of Spider-Man to the Marvel family, despite the character never having actually been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the past.
Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige said Homecoming feels like what the MCU has been building toward since it was conceived a decade ago. Giving individual heroes a chance to shine and bringing them all together in movies like The Avengers has been wonderful, but Feige argued it always felt like it was missing something. Spider-Man, who is arguably the heart of Marvel, being welcomed into the universe that Marvel has created feels like breaking down one barricade stopping the studio from creating the world they wanted to, according to Feige.
“So much of what we’ve done with Marvel Studios just started with very few people in a room going, ‘Boy, it would be really cool if we could just do this’ or ‘it would be cool if we could do that, but it could probably never happen,” Feige said. “This by far is the pinnacle of that. Sitting down with Amy Pascal for the first time and going ‘What if we brought him home? What if we brought him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe?’”
Spider-Man is in an interesting spot for Marvel. The character, while appearing in Marvel movies, isn’t technically the studio’s character. Spider-Man still belongs to Sony making Spider-Man: Homecoming a Sony picture. Marvel can use the character in its own movies, however, like Captain America: Civil War and The Avengers: Infinity War, but Sony will retain the rights. In Marvel movies that Spider-Man appears in, Marvel will earn full profit. But in Spider-Man movies that Marvel may hep Sony create, like Homecoming, Sony will make full profit.
Homecoming is the first of three stand-alone movies actor Tom Holland is contractually obligated to appear in. Producer Amy Pascal said there are hopes he will appear in spinoffs like Venom, but there’s no certainty of that at this time. Holland will also appear in three MCU movies, including Civil War and Infinity War.
Spider-Man: Homecoming will be released on July 7.
