Captain America: Civil War Writers Confirm Why They Needed Spider-Man
An origin would have been a deal breaker.
As the pre-release marketing for Captain America: Civil War prints towards this week's North American release date, writers Steven McFeely and Chris Markus have spoken to The Hollywood Reporter to give some more insight on some of their key creative decisions.
Chief among the questions is the issue of new characters Spider-Man and Black Panther, who they brought in seemingly to freshen things up. In terms of Black Panther, McFeely confirmed that they needed a wild card who wasn't going to be affected by long-term proximity with either side of the team:
"They came around very organically. We needed a character who sat outside of the Avengers who was wronged by their actions and could take party in the festivities, if you will, and not have the same agenda to either side of the Avengers."
And for Spider-Man, it was also a case of new perspective:
"By the same token we needed another fresh face an ingenue who would work with the Avengers and his ark would be something like, 'Look I am playing on the big team!' We needed those different perspectives on the same conflict, people who didn't have the same angst about everything because they hadn't shared five movies with these people."
To be fair, that's a slightly tenuous explanation, and it doesn't really change the suspicion that Spider-Man is involved because the timing of the Sony/Marvel deal dictated it. Having seen the film, it does feel a lot like Spider-Man is slotted in for the sake of it, but that doesn't mean he's not still the best thing about the film.
However they want to dress that up is fine by me.
To the writers' credit, Markus also said precisely why their Spider-Man didn't need an origin:
"Part of the fun of comics in coming upon a new character or new superhero that is fully formed and then finding out where the came from. Spider-Man has had five movies prior to now so it isn't necessary to give them an origin but it's fun to just come in on their kid. The same thing with Panther; this is not his origin in this movie, but he has been introduced so now you can go into the mechanics of a real plot as opposed to having a half-hour where he become that guy and then having less time for plot."
It certainly does feel a lot more organic, and the writers clearly felt strongly about the decision: "We would not have included Spider-Man if we had to show him getting bitten by a radio-active spider," Markus says "The whole movie is long enough as it is without adding that. The mantra for us was to bring in character's when the story needed them."
Again, the story doesn't NEED Spider-Man when he arrives - he appears because he's available, not because he's key (and in honesty, Tony Stark's recruitment of him is remarkably irresponsible), but again, it is entirely forgivable.
On the longevity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he said, "There is just so much history now that these characters are finally starting to feel like real people. It's like the fourth or fifth season on a really good TV show. When we signed on to the first Captain America, I would have never thought this place would have become self-sustaining."
The writers also confirmed how writing Civil War has helped prepare them for Infinity War, which they're also writing:
"We learned with Civil War that you can have different stories that rotate around a central question. So when we have people all of the universe, relating to one central thing, it is going to cohere more than having five separate strands that you are hoping will bang into each other by accident. This is nothing new. In Star Wars there are a lot of different things happening on a lot of different planets but it all comes together."
Balance wasn't an issue in Civil War, so Marvel definitely have the right writers in charge of that particularly challenging ensemble.
Meanwhile, the men charged with directing Infinity War have confirmed that they won't be looking to include The Defenders in Infinity War, as the cast of available characters is already big enough:
"The Marvel Universe is sprawling - the Marvel Cinematic Universe is enormous. Just think of all the characters that havent been introduced yet that are going to be introduced by the time that were working on Infinity War. We have a tough task just telling the stories of the characters who exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, let alone adding the entire Marvel Television universe.Anything is possible in Marvel. Its certainly something were considering. But our focus is on telling the stories of the characters that currently exist on the movie side."
That's a shame, but you can understand it: having to bring in another four characters with personal reasons to join in the war (rather than just a vague threat to existence) would be an unnecessary stretch, and Infinity War is already going to be double-stuffed.
Still, it's a shame we won't get to see more of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
Are you excited for more Spider-Man in the MCU? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.