Spider-Man: Homecoming Director Comments on Peter’s Iron Man 2 Connection

Yesterday, Spider-Man: Homecoming star Tom Holland revealed that while he didn’t play appear in Iron Man 2, that movie technically predated Captain America: Civil War as the first appearance of Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In Iron Man 2, the Stark Expo ends up in crisis. Justin Hammer’s new machines begin running rampant, prompting Tony Stark to save lives of attendees in his Iron Man suit. One brave young boy stands tall when a Hammertech mech is about to shoot him, raising his hand and using his imagination to blast the mech with the Iron Man gauntlet he is wearing. Luckily, Iron Man swoops in to save him at the same time.

Turns out that kid was Peter, at least in hindsight, and while Holland more or less just let the cat out of the bag, director Jon Watts told Uproxx what the thought process behind the decision was.

“You make the joke about that, but basically when I rewatched all the Marvel movies, I was watching them like that,” Watts said. “I was watching all these other movies and being like, ‘What if that little kid at the Stark Expo was Peter Parker? In the Iron Man mask.’ Like, he’d be about the right age for that. And he loves Tony Stark. ‘Oh, what about after the Avengers battle, who would clean that stuff up?’ Because they mention damage control at one point in the movie. So it’s this thing where, because it’s not completely figured out, that you can just go back and basically write fan fiction for those movies, then the fan fiction becomes reality. A lot of the Easter eggs in this movie just started by rewatching the movies.”

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Adrian Toomes was in charge of a cleanup crew responsible for taking care of wreckage from the climactic battle in Marvel’s The Avengers, and turned to a life of crime as The Vulture after the contract unexpectedly dried up and nearly ruined him.

Fun bit of side trivia Watts recalled: the first appearance of Peter Parker in the MCU was in fact played by Max Favreau, son of Iron Man director Jon Favreau.

You can find the official synopsis for Homecoming below, which has a 4.13 out of 5 on ComicBook.com’s anticipation rankings.

Young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging super hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine – distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

The cast includes Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Tyne Daly, Bokeem Woodbine, with Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr. It also includes Jon Favreau, Martin Starr, Kenneth Choi, Michael Mando, Selenis Leyva, Isabella Amara, Jorge Lendeborg, Jr., JJ Totah, and Hannibal Buress.