Spider-man: Homecoming’s villains will have BIG links to Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron

While Marvel may not always stay true to the ‘it’s all connected’ motto they like to use with the MCU, it looks like Spider-man: Homecoming is going out of its way to make sure the fans know it really IS all connected.

While, in the movie universe, we didn’t meet Spidey until Captain America: Civil War, it seems the story will begin (on screen as it’s rumoured to be the first scene) waaaay back in 2012’s Phase 1 of the MCU. At the end of Avengers in fact.

Executive producer Eric Carroll spilling the beans said of the upcoming Homecoming: “All the other movies so far, take place in this weird penthouse level where you’ve met this alien royalty, and Tony Stark, who very literally lives in a penthouse. (Spider-Man) is a guy who grew up in a world where all these characters are real. Seeing it from the ground, what is that like? How is that different?

“The film literally begins in the shadow of Stark Tower, now with its trademark “A” still hanging on. Michael Keaton’s Toomes has arrived with his boys to begin the clean-up process, a nice little contract he’s picked up for his salvage business, only to be stopped by the Department of Damage Control who are taking over the clean up and send Toomes away.”

Damage Control, comic fans will know, is a company in the Marvel universe whose job is to clean up after superheroes and super villains slug it out. As such, they very often will have weapons and technology that’s not really for the public’s use or eyes.

This is where the rivalry between Tony Stark – who will be prominent in the movie – and Michael Keaton’s villain Adrian Toomes AKA Vulture comes from as Toomes earned hi slicing cleaning up after The Avengers but when Stark created Damage Control he was out of a job and this has made him rather bitter.

Co-producer Eric Hauserman Carroll says of the wing suit Vulture wears: “They use this wing suit to go on these little raids, to get to these sites that would normally be under Damage Control’s purview and get this [alien] stuff first. Or, if they can’t get there first, they intercept and rob Damage Control trucks in a stealth way, so that Damage Control doesn’t realize they’re being robbed. Of course, these are just trucks full of junk. [Toomes is] picking and choosing the cool stuff out of there. So before it even gets to Damage Control to be sorted, they don’t know anything is missing. That’s sort of his operation.”

We also learned earlier that Toomes and his crew will have technology belonging to the Chitauri, the aliens that invaded in the first Avengers movie, and use it for nefarious actions. However we now know that there’s a link to Age of Ultron (which we thought before too (see link above)) but not in a way we suspected.

Carroll talks about the character of Shocker, played by Bokeem Woodbine, and the weapons he uses against Spidey in the movie: “One of the guys on his team goes by The Shocker, which Toomes make fun of him for. ‘What is this, Pro-Wrestling?’ I think this is another really cool interpretation of a pretty classic costume. He’s got these insulated, yellow arms, like the Shocker in the comics. And that gauntlet, you’ll recognize from the beginning of Civil War. It’s what’s Crossbones is using to kick the s#@t of Cap in that prologue. They scavenged it from the battle in Lagos, and made a couple of upgrades, so that it’s not a pneumatic punch machine. It also delivers a pretty hefty jolt when it connects, as well.”

Oh and, in a related note, don’t expect Spidey to be full of guilt over the death of Uncle Ben in this one. Carroll talks about Ben and his role -as a dead father figure: “We thought that, to keep this fun, light tone, as soon as they have to have their, like, ‘Let’s remember our dearly departed father figure’ — it derails that a little. And again, what we’re trying to tell is this sort of fun story of the kid who is doing all the wrong things for the right reasons. And once you do that, it stops becoming a fun movie about a kid trying to be a kid. He’s mourning the loss of a parent.”

Although we got from the trailer(s) that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) will look up to Tony Stark as that sort of figure – although we are hearing that there will be NO romantic entanglement with Aunt May, despite the flirting in Civil War (plus we have a good idea that Pepper Potts will be back this time around to keep Stark in line).

Anyway, back to Ben: “They talk about [Ben], absolutely,” adds Carroll, “It’s not… it’s not a huge thing that I want to go into too much, but there is an acknowledgment that there was a Ben. He’s not around anymore, for sure. They talk about that. We don’t go into any specifics. … We’re implying he’s dead. We have not at all, again, gone into trying to change his origin story.”

So there you have it, Spider-man: Homecoming will have a story that weaves (ahem) in and out of previous big events in the MCU. And we love that.

Do you? Let us know…

Spider-Man: Homecoming opens in theaters on July 7

Source: Comingsoon and Cinemablend