Why one of the coolest shots from the Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer didn’t make it into the movie
It’s like Rogue One all over again
When the first trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming hit the internet, fans were particularly taken with a scene that saw Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man flying alongside a swinging Spider-Man (Tom Holland).
However, in the finished film there’s no sign of the already-iconic shot, and for good reason – because according to director Jon Watts, it was never supposed to be.
“I think what happened was in the very first trailer they wanted a shot of Spider-Man and Iron Man flying together,” Watts told Screen Crush.
“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.
The missing shot
“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.”
In other words, then, it was more of a “mood” shot designed to give off a sense of the movie instead of a specific scene from the film, rather like the famously missing trailer shot from Star Wars prequel Rogue One where Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso strides towards a TIE Fighter.
Clearly, this sort of trailer-fiddling chicanery is becoming a bit of trend, though Watts went on to admit that he was a little weirded out by it in the end.
“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,” he said. “It’s funny, I forgot that we did that.”
Spider-Man: Homecoming is in cinemas now
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
