Jon Watts on Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer shots which aren’t in the movie

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The first trailer for SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING came to a close with the image of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) zipping through Queens together. It's an image which has been repeated throughout SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING's ever-present marketing campaign, but if you're hoping to catch that sequence while you're watching the film this Friday, you'll be in for a disappointment. It isn't in the movie, and, as director Jon Watts tells ScreenCrush, it was designed specifically to be used for the trailers in order to show Spider-Man and Iron Man flying together.

I think what happened was in the very first trailer they wanted a shot of Spider-Man and Iron Man flying together. And they were going to use something from the Staten Island Ferry [scene], but it just didn’t look that great — the background plate, because the Staten Island terminal is a very simple building. It almost looks like an unrendered 3D object. So I think I was like "Let’s just put them in Queens. Let’s use that as a backdrop." Because we couldn’t just create a whole new shot, so let’s just use one of these shots of the subway; put them in there. I feel a little weird that there’s a shot in the trailer that’s not in the movie at all, but it’s a cool shot. It’s funny, I forgot that we did that.

In addition to Iron Man and Spidey's heroic flight, another shot which was never intended to be in the finished movie was a shot of Vulture (Michael Keaton) crashing down through a hotel atrium directly towards the camera. Jon Watts explained that the shot was originally created for a Comic-Con sizzle reel before they had shot much of anything else.

The hotel atrium shot was originally created for Comic-Con, for like a sizzle reel before we had really shot anything; we had shot like two weeks of footage or something. That was never meant to be in the movie. But I did use that angle for Vulture’s reveal at the beginning of the movie; Vulture’s hovering, swooping towards the camera like that. I used that shot, it’s just no longer in an Atlanta hotel atrium.

Trailers which contain shots or entire scenes which don't make it into the final movie are certainly nothing new, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY was a particularly bad offender in that regard, but it's always a bit of a disappointment when a memorable shot or line from the trailer is absent from the film. Thankfully, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING features more than enough of Peter Parker and Tony Stark to make you forget all about a split-second shot from the trailer.

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING will finally hit theaters this Friday, so make sure to check out a review from our own Eric Walkuski and keep your eye open for a second opinion from Chris Bumbray tomorrow.