Producers weigh in on Spider-Man’s future & details of Keaton’s Vulture

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

With SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING on the way, and the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler set to appear in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, many of us are wondering what's in store for Tom Holland's Spider-Man after Thanos arrives to turn the world of Marvel's Mightiest Heroes upside down? Well, the fact of the matter is that Spider-Man's future is already being closely evaluated, with at least two more films planned of the wise-cracking web-slinger.

Recently, while visiting the set of SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, producer Eric Carroll told ComingSoon.net, “We really want to do multiple movies where he’s in high school.

The films differ from traditional Marvel Studios films as they’re the product of cooperation between Marvel, Disney, and Sony, which producer Amy Pascal calls “a miraculously smooth partnership.” Moving forward though, future Spider-Man movies won’t carry an asterisk by their name while in development and will be treated as just another movie on the Marvel schedule.

Going forward we would definitely treat them all as the same slate, Carroll stated. “So we would be as strategic about where future Spider-Man movies fall in the MCU of it all as we would if Sony weren’t involved, because there’s nothing in it for us or Sony to put a movie out at the wrong time or start confusing the continuity.”

In reference to the above quote, is the recent news of VENOM and SILVER SABLE/BLACK CAT being granted their own films by Sony, in addition to the planned SPIDER-MAN animated film featuring Miles Morales. As their set coverage continued, ComingSoon.net also spoke with Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, who remarked about what villains he'd like to see appear in the franchise while he's still wearing the suit, “Well, I love Doc Ock. I think Spider-Man 2 is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. But I think Venom is someone I’d love to kick the crap out of one day.” 

Ha ha ha! I like Holland's moxie. I must admit though, while I like his energy for Spider-Man's rogues gallery, I would like to see the radioactive spider-bitten hero battle villains that have yet to appear ont he big screen (in Sony'd SPIDER-MAN films or otherwise). 

In talking about the planned content for their slate of SPIDER-MAN-related films, producer Amy Pascal offered this comment, "We've recycled a lot. I think there are certain characters I don’t think there’s anything more to say about them right this minute? I mean, I don’t know how many more times we can do the Green Goblin. I’ve certainly tried to do it fifty."

Eric Caroll then interjected to give his thoughts on the idea of recycled material and more, "We want to tread lightly with what’s been done in the past films as far as The Osbornes and things like that. So I don’t think we’re going directly down that route. We figured honestly if there was a way to do this movie without mentioning anyone who has been in past films, with the exception of staples like Flash Thompson and Aunt May, that that might be a good thing to do.

It’s like your Dad handing you the keys to the Lamborghini. This was the one unspoken rule when you came to work at Marvel, ‘Hey, Spider-Man is the crown jewel, but we’ll never get him back. We’re never getting Spider-Man back, but look at all these other cool characters we have?!’ All of a sudden when there’s this opportunity to play with Spider-Man in the MCU, that’s all it was.

I think we found the right formula and I think everybody is going to want the right thing to continue. And I think that there’s a surprisingly generous and cooperative thing and if it works, then it’s going to work for everybody."

Additionally, Caroll was happy to share some details regarding Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes AKA The Vulture, "He is a businessman with a family and he wants to look out for him and his. He has a Tony Soprano mentality, he doesn’t have these big delusions of grandeur where he wants to take over the world or replace the government or even defeat The Avengers or anything, he just wants his shot at the good life." 

Also patrolling the set was Michael Keaton himself who told ComingSoon.net, "He is somewhat of a victim. He takes things in that he feels like a victim, and some of it is justified actually. He believes that there’s an upper echelon of society of people who are getting away with a lot and have everything. And there’s a whole lot of folks who are working hard, and don’t have much. Does that sound familiar? To anybody, given the political climate? Which I think is an interesting way to go about this."

This is where it all starts to go dark for Toomes. Before he can get to work on cleaning up the rubble and salvage, the Department of Damage Control arrives and tells him to take a hike. 

Keaton then continues, "He thinks it’s not fair that someone like Tony Stark can make a fortune selling weapons and find the light, turn away from that and be looked upon as a hero, and then even worse help found the DoDC and get paid to help clean up the messes he makes,” Carroll says. “He’s like ‘It’s rigged man!’ He’s one of those guys."

In the face of what he sees an an injustice, Toomes then turns to a life of crime. After he and his crew make off with some Chitauri tech from the ruins of the New York disaster, he builds his wing suit and begins his career as The Vulture. Keaton elaborates on this by saying, "One of the things when we landed on the Vulture being the bad guy, we wanted to make sure it wasn’t just evil Falcon, or another guy with a backpack with wings on it,” Carroll says. “So we felt one of the cool ways to do that was to make this more of a vehicle than a costume. This thing is something like 32 to 36 feet wide. It’s a small plane. It’s not a backpack he puts on and wings pop out. It’s a thing that rests on a gantry that he has to step and clip into, and it is massive."

The thing of it is that the wing suit just isn't enough for Toomes and what he has planned. After taking flight while strapped to his new gear, Toomes and his mena begin stealing other pieces of technology from notable Avengers-centric battles including: Dark Elf technology, the remnants of Ultron tech from Sakovia, and even the skermish with Crossbones in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. Concerning this, Keaton said, "That gauntlet, you’ll recognize from the beginning of Civil War, it’s what Crossbones is using to kick the sh*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."

Furthermore, Keaton also commented on Toomes' relationship with his crew in the film, which also happens to include another Spier-Man-related villian, "They are just his boys, you know? I really like the relationship with the Tinkerer–with Michael (Chernus)’s character–it’s great. He’s real funny, so we goof around a lot and make up very, very funny backstories. They’re funny, but then you think, ‘Well, that’s probably their relationship. They probably get on each other’s nerves sometimes.’ I have a lot of the ideas and then I just say, “Go make that. Go make that for me. I want to have a thing that does all this stuff. Just go make that stuff for me.” And he’s great. I’m having a lot of fun in that relationship.

Lastly, SPIDER-MAN:HOMECOMING director Jon Watts chimed in with this statement, "I like the idea you could have someone who becomes a villain and they’re also a regular person,” director Jon Watts told us. “It’s just a grounded take on where someone like that could come from and where the other people that are a part of it come from, and just trying to root it in something that is believable, so it’s not just this arch-villain plot that comes out of nowhere."

Wow, are you still with me? That's a whole hell of a lot of info, and much of it has me more excited for SPIDER-MAN:HOMECOMING than I was before. How about you? Let us know what you think of all these details in the comments section below!

SPIDER-MAN:HOMECOMING will web-swing into theaters on July 7, 2017!