Although he didn't feature in the trailer that dropped last week, we now have something along the lines of official confirmation that everyone's favourite webslinger will make an appearance in Captain America: Civil War.
In a recent interview, Robert Downey Jr. talked quite a bit about the politics behind Civil War, saying that he "fully agrees" with what Iron Man does in the film and talked openly about being a member of what he called the old guard.
"Cheadle and I are just going, ‘Wow, dude, look at this.’ We’re now like the old guard, and our storyline carries real weight just because of our history in the (canon). But we’re also looking around like, ‘Who thought that Falcon and Black Panther and Ant-Man and now Spider-Man...?’ I mean it’s like wow, this thing is just crazy."
Again, like we said, it's not an official confirmation, but it's as close as we're going to get at this stage. As we reported a few months back, Sony and Marvel signed a deal that would see Spider-Man turn up in a Marvel movie and essentially join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It was a canny move by ex-Sony Pictures chief Amy Paschal who knows how much weight and good will joining the MCU brings to Spider-Man, a character that's been unsuccessfully rebooted once already. This time around, 19-year old Tom Holland - who's due to turn up in period thriller In The Heart Of The Sea over Christmas - will be in the spidey-suit, replacing Andrew Garfield's short-lived run.
As for what role Spider-Man will play in Captain America: Civil War isn't exactly clear. The film is deviating from the comic book storyline of the same name with Spider-Man playing a key role in that. The MCU has never exactly been loyal to the comic book storylines per se; rather it picks and chooses what works for it and tailors it accordingly.
It'd seem unlikely to introduce Spider-Man and have him play a central role here when the audience isn't fully aware. Plus, there's always a risk that putting too many characters into a film like this will turn it into an overbloated mess - much like Spider-Man 3.
We won't know anything for sure until April 26th, 2016 when Civil War hits our screens.
Via EW.com
