Get the Inside Scoop on Spider-Man Homecoming w/ Co-Producer Eric Hauserman Carroll

As the release of Spider-Man Homecoming comes closer, I finally have the go ahead to share more with you from our set visit. Even then, I have to tread lightly since our visit was loaded with spoilers that I’m not allowed to leak yet. Patience, patience. It’s all coming in due time. 😉 That’s why you shouldn’t worry about that any updates or trailers will ruin the fun for you — Marvel and Sony are keeping a tight reign on the best parts!

After arriving at the studio, we went into the “war room.” Concept art from the entire film, scene by scene, lined the walls. These included set ideas, talents, costume designs, and more. Co-Producer Eric Hauserman Carroll walked us through everything. And I do mean EVERYthing! His enthusiasm for the film was oozing over.

A 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.

Spider-Man Homecoming w/ Eric Hauserman Carroll — Story & Characters

The first few minutes of the movie introduces viewers to the villain, Vulture, before he went bad. Adrian Toomes runs a salvage company. Following the events of the first Avengers movie, he desperately did what he could to get contracts to clean up these sites. But, when a new government agency swoops in and takes over, Toomes goes over the edge.

This is literally a guy who picks up the scraps left behind from super villain battles, takes that tech, and repurposes it and profits off it. In an interesting way, he’s kind of the dark mirror of Tony Stark.

The actor who plays the main character is Tom Holland (my interview with him is coming soon). He blew his audition out of the water when he offered to do a backflip on the spot. The crew already liked him but the backflips sealed the deal.

Aunt May is played by Marisa Tomei as a re-envisioned version of the character. Believe it or not, the movie has scenes of her actually leaving the house and having a life!

Their relationship is a huge part of the comics but, at the same time, it’s never really explained why Aunt May is twice the age of his parents. So, we decided to go with the literal translation that this is his father’s sister and she is roughly the age his parents would be.

Jacob Batalon portrays Ned Leeds. Ned is Peter’s good friend, almost like a sidekick, who he’s known since they were young. When filmmakers looked back at some of the other movies, he never had any real friends. (Harry doesn’t count since he was bad almost right away.) In a school full of smart, nerdy kids, these guys are “nerdier.”

While Carroll said it wasn’t intentional, I love the fact that the cast is so diverse. They also purposely casted a young group of actors so, if they do two more movies, they can use the same people. The idea is that each movie will take place during a year of high school. In Spider-Man Homecoming, Peter is a sophomore.

Spider-Man Homecoming w/ Eric Hauserman Carroll — Becoming a Hero

When people think of Spider-Man, they think of the web-slinger who swings off skyscrapers through New York. But, like most people, Peter Parker starts off with a rational fear of heights. It’s pretty scary when you’re 40 stories off the ground with nothing between you and that drop.

One of the stories we’re trying to tell is that he’s going to have to work up to being a world-class superhero. So, in this movie, we never really see him more than 4-6 stories off the ground because he’s still growing into this sort of role.

When asked about Spider-Man’s origins, Carroll mentioned that they will acknowledge it but won’t rehash that story. One of the mission statements for this film was to make a really different kind of Spider-Man movie. It’s more about modernizing the story and putting a twist on it to make it fit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

We’re making the first Peter Parker movie. It’s not the sixth Spider-Man movie.

Spider-Man will still be the same fun and chatty character that fans know and love, though. As we saw in Captain America Civil War, Spider-Man will continue to be in awe of the science behind his enemies’ weapons. Also, well-known talents were brought in to help keep the comedic tone just right. These include Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Vacation movie) and Chris McKenna and Erik Somers (Community and other television comedies).

We sought out people to help us to make sure he had a fun, funny voice and it stayed light.

Spider-Man Homecoming w/ Eric Hauserman Carroll — On Set During Filming

After blowing our minds with Spider-Man Homecoming goodness. We jumped onto a couple of golf carts to visit the set. Filming was actually taking place while we were there. So, a monitor and some headsets were brought out so we could watch. If you look at the featured photo at the top of this post, you can also see the school lockers used in the film!

They were filming the part when Ned finds out about Peter being Spider-Man (as shown in the first official trailer). The scene went through several retakes and bloopers. It was so fun to watch it all happening live and unedited. We even saw the hair and makeup artists going in between scenes to freshen up the actors. Oh, it wasn’t too bad meeting the Director, Jon Watts, while on set either. 😀

UPDATE: Here are links to the “now I can share it” coverage!

• Set visit announcement
• Interview with actors Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon — So funny!
• New York Press Junket coverage
• Spider-Man Homecoming movie review
• Interview with Producer Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige (coming)

Spider-Man Homecoming will be in theaters on July 7, 2017!

• Visit the official website: http://www.spidermanhomecoming.com/
• Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpiderManMovie
• Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpiderManMovie
• See on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spidermanmovie/

I was invited on an all-expense paid media trip in honor of Spider-Man Homecoming from Marvel and Sony. All opinions are my own.

See more:
Marvel’s Avengers | Avengers 2: Age of Ultron | Monsters University | Frozen | Big Hero 6 | D23 Expo 2015 | Finding Dory | Pete’s Dragon | Spider-Man Homecoming