Spider-Man Was Always Part Of The Captain America: Civil War Plan

Marvel Studios may have been back-up planning for a Captain America: Civil War film which didn’t include Spider-Man but the Russo Brothers were never considering it.

Though Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics characters, the cinematic rights to web-slinger were sold to Sony Studios in the 90’s, well before Marvel Studios became one of the world’s most successful brands. Following a disappointing sequel in Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man franchise, the two parties worked out a deal in February of 2015 which would allow Peter Parker to appear in Marvel’s Civil War.

However, by March, Captain America: Civil War had already begun production, leaving many with the assumption that the script the film started to shoot couldn’t have included Spider-Man. The directors are shooting that assumption down. While at a live panel a CCPX in Brazil over the weekend, one of the two Russo brothers directing Captain America: Civil War, Anthony, explained that the duo never saw a Civil War without Spider-Man.

“From the second that we had the idea that we were gonna do Civil War, Spider-Man was a part of the plan. A part of the story,” Anthony Russo began. “It was a very complicated business arrangement for Marvel Studios to be able to use Spider-Man from Sony studios. So we were always told by Marvel, ‘Well, don’t count on it, you may not get to use Spider-Man, you may not get to use Spider-Man, you better have a plan B.’ We were like, ‘Okay, we get it we have a plan B, we’ll figure the movie out if we don’t get Spider-Man,’ but the truth is we never had a plan B. We only ever envisioned the movie with Spider-Man. He was always a part of the story. It was very important to us to re-introduce the character. We cast him young.Tom Holland’s a young actor, a teen himself. We really like playing to that nature of the character and we think it makes him very special in the universe of the Marvel characters.”

He wouldn’t share many details about the new take on the character outside of that, but he did say, “People are really going to love Spider-Man in this film.”

However, he also added that it’ll be Spider-Man and his other insect-themed hero who will provide the comic relief of Civil War. When asked where most of Civil War’s lighthearted and comedic moments will come from, Russo responded, “It would be characters like Spider-Man, Ant-Man, who enter the story a little later.”

Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6, 2016.