Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming is a 2017 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. The movie was produced by Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, and Pascal Pictures, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the second Spider-Man film reboot and the 16th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Jon Watts, the film stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, along with Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr.. In the story, Peter tries to balance his life at high school with being the hero Spider-Man while facing the Vulture.

The film was made possible when Marvel Studios and Sony reached a deal in February 2015 to share the film rights for Spider-Man. Tom Holland was cast as Spider-Man in June 2015, and Jon Watts was hired to direct. Filming took place in Fayette County, Georgia, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, and Berlin. Spider-Man: Homecoming premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles on June 28, 2017, and was released in the United States on July 7. The movie was very successful, earning $880.9 million worldwide and receiving praise for its fun tone and focus on Peter's high school life. Two sequels have been released: Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. A new trilogy of live-action films is set to begin with Spider-Man: Brand New Day in 2026.

Plot

After the Battle of New York in 2012, Adrian Toomes and his company were hired to clean up the city. However, they lost their job when the Department of Damage Control, a group started by Tony Stark and the U.S. government, took over. Angry about losing his business, Toomes decided to keep some special technology he found and started making and selling powerful weapons. He even made a special flying suit called the Vulture to steal energy pieces.

Eight years later, Peter Parker, who is also Spider-Man, is back at school after helping the Avengers in Germany. Tony Stark tells him he is not ready to be a full-time Avenger yet. Peter decides to focus more on being Spider-Man instead of school activities. His friend Ned eventually learns that Peter is Spider-Man.

Peter finds some of Toomes’s workers selling weapons to a bad guy named Aaron Davis. Peter tries to stop them but gets caught by Toomes in the Vulture suit and almost falls into a lake. Tony Stark saves him and warns Peter to stay away from these criminals. Toomes accidentally hurts one of his workers, and another worker takes over.

Peter and Ned study one of the weapons and take out a special part from it. They follow another worker to Maryland and then go to a big school competition in Washington, D.C.. Peter tries to stop Toomes from stealing more weapons but gets trapped and misses the competition. He finds out the special part he took is very dangerous and rushes to the Washington Monument to stop it before it causes trouble. He saves his friends who were stuck in an elevator.

Later, Peter goes to a school dance called homecoming with his friend Liz. He discovers that Toomes is actually Liz’s father, and Toomes figures out that Peter is Spider-Man. Toomes tells Peter he plans to steal weapons from a plane.

Peter leaves the dance and fights another of Toomes’s workers. He then goes to Toomes’s hideout and is almost hurt but manages to escape. Peter stops the plane from flying away and has a big fight with Toomes. In the end, Peter saves Toomes’s life when his suit breaks, and Toomes is arrested by the police. Liz moves away, and Peter decides not to join the Avengers full time yet.

In a scene after the movie ends, another criminal in prison talks to Toomes about knowing Spider-Man’s secret identity, but Toomes says this is not true.

Cast

• Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A 15-year-old who gained spider-like abilities after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Holland took inspiration from previous Spider-Man actors but hoped to deliver something new, focusing on Peter's everyday problems as a teen while also trying to save the city.
• Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes / Vulture: A salvager who turns to crime after his company is forced out of business. He uses a suit with mechanical wings made from advanced technology.
• Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan: The former head of security for Stark Industries and Tony Stark's driver and bodyguard. He looks after Peter in the film.
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts: Tony Stark's fiancée and the CEO of Stark Industries.
• Zendaya as Michelle: One of Peter's classmates, also known as "MJ". She is described as awkward but intellectual.
• Donald Glover as Aaron Davis: A criminal looking to purchase weapons from Toomes. He is the uncle of Miles Morales, who later becomes Spider-Man in the comics.
• Jacob Batalon as Ned: Peter's best friend, who is described as a "complete gamer".
• Laura Harrier as Liz: A senior, Peter's love interest, and Toomes's daughter.
• Tony Revolori as Flash: Peter's rival and classmate. He was reimagined as a social media bully rather than a physically imposing jock.
• Bokeem Woodbine as Herman Schultz / Shocker: An accomplice of Toomes.
• Tyne Daly as Anne Marie Hoag: The head of the U.S. Department of Damage Control.
• Marisa Tomei as May Parker: Peter's aunt.
• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man: A billionaire playboy and philanthropist who mentors Peter and created the U.S. Department of Damage Control.

Additionally, Kerry Condon and Chris Evans reprise their roles as F.R.I.D.A.Y. and Steve Rogers / Captain America from previous MCU films, respectively. Other actors portray various characters in Peter's high school and the local community.

Production

Development

Following the November 2014 hacking of Sony's computers, emails between Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released, stating that Sony wanted Marvel Studios to produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man films while Sony retained "creative control, marketing, and distribution". Discussions between Sony and Marvel broke down, and Sony planned to proceed with its own slate of Spider-Man films. However, in February 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that they would release a new Spider-Man film, with Kevin Feige and Pascal producing (the latter through her company Pascal Pictures). The character would first appear in an earlier Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film, later revealed to be Captain America: Civil War (2016). Marvel Studios would explore opportunities to integrate MCU characters into future Spider-Man films, which Sony Pictures would continue to finance, distribute, and have final creative control over. Both studios have the ability to terminate the agreement at any point, and no money was exchanged with the deal. However, a small adjustment was made to a 2011 deal that gave Marvel full control of Spider-Man's merchandising rights, in exchange for a one-time payment of $175 million to Sony and paying up to $35 million for each future Spider-Man film rather than receiving their previous five percent of a Spider-Man film's revenue—Marvel could now reduce their $35 million payment if the co-produced film grossed more than $750 million. Marvel Studios still received five percent of first dollar gross for the film. Lone Star Funds also co-financed the film with Sony, via its LSC Film Corporation deal, covering 25 percent of the $175 million budget, while Columbia Pictures officially served as co-producer with Marvel Studios. Sony also paid Marvel Studios an undisclosed producer fee.

Marvel had been working to add Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since at least October 2014, when they announced their slate of Phase Three films, with Feige saying, "Marvel doesn't announce anything officially until it's set in stone. So we went forward with that Plan A in October, with the Plan B being, if the deal were to happen with Sony, how it would all shift. We've been thinking about the Spider-Man film as long as we've been thinking about Phase Three." Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, producers for The Amazing Spider-Man series, were set to serve as executive producers, with neither director Marc Webb nor actor Andrew Garfield returning for the new film. Sony was reportedly looking for an actor younger than Garfield to play Spider-Man, with Logan Lerman and Dylan O'Brien considered front-runners. In March 2015, Drew Goddard was being considered to write and direct the film, while O'Brien said he had not been approached for the role. Goddard, who was previously attached to a Sony film based on the Sinister Six, later said he declined to work on the new film as he thought he "didn't really have an idea" for it and struggled with the idea of working on a new film after spending a year working on the Sinister Six film and being in that mindset. The following month, while promoting Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Feige said the character of Peter Parker would be around 15 to 16 years old in the film, which would not be an origin story, since "there have been two retellings of that origin in the last thirteen years, so we are going to take it for granted that people know that, and the specifics". Peter's Uncle Ben is still referenced in the film, but not by name. There was some discussion to include a direct reference to Ben when Peter is getting ready for his homecoming by the revelation that his wardrobe consisted of Ben's clothes, but the writers desisted because they felt that the moment veered away from Peter's character arc and made Ben's death feel like a "throwaway line". Later in April, Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothée Chalamet, and Liam James were under consideration by Sony and Marvel to play Spider-Man, with Holland and Butterfield as the front-runners. Joseph Quinn, Chandler Riggs, and Zachary Gordon also auditioned for the role.

In May 2015, Jonathan Levine, Ted Melfi, Jason Moore, the writing team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and Jared Hess were being considered to direct the film. Butterfield, Holland, Judah Lewis, Matt Lintz, Charlie Plummer, and Charlie Rowe screen-tested for the lead role against Robert Downey Jr., who portrays Tony Stark / Iron Man in the MCU, for "chemistry". The six were chosen out of a search of over 1,500 actors to test in front of Feige, Pascal, and the Russo brothers—the directors of Captain America: Civil War. Lintz would later be cast as Bruno Carrelli in the Marvel Studios Disney+ series Ms. Marvel (2022). By early June 2015, Levine and Melfi had become the favorites to direct the film, with Daley and Goldstein and Jon Watts also in consideration, while Feige and Pascal narrowed the actors considered to Holland and Rowe, with both screen-testing with Downey again. Holland also tested with Chris Evans, who portrays Steve Rogers / Captain America in the MCU and emerged as the favorite. Jon Bernthal also advised Holland to showcase his athletic skills during his audition tape. On June 23, Marvel and Sony officially announced that Holland would star as Spider-Man and that Watts would direct the film. The Russos "were pretty vocal about who they wanted for the part", pushing to cast an actor close to the age of Peter Parker to differentiate from the previous portrayals. They also praised Holland for having a dancing and gymnastics background. Watts was able to read the Civil War script, talk with the Russos, and was on set for the filming of Spider-Man's scenes in that film. He was able to "see what they were doing with it" and provide "ideas about this and that", including what Peter's bedroom and wardrobe looked like "so that my movie transitions seamlessly with theirs". On joining the MCU and directing the film, Watts said he was excited to explore the "ground level" of the MCU, a world where characters like the Avengers exist but have only been depicted in previous films at "the Penthouse level of the Marvel world".

Before getting the job of director, Watts created images of Nick Fury as Peter's mentor in the story in early "mood reels" saying, "I don't know what the situation would be, but that would be a person he'd want to get in trouble with." Feige said the films of John Hughes would be a major influence and that Peter's personal growth and development would be just as important as his role as Spider-Man. He noted that "at that age, in high school, everything feels like life or death". He also said that the film hoped to use one of Spider-Man's rogues that have not been seen in film yet, and that filming would begin in June 2016. In July 2015, it was reported that Marisa Tomei had been offered the role of May Parker, Peter's aunt. It was also revealed that Daley and Goldstein, after missing out on the director role, had begun negotiations to write the screenplay, and were given three days to present Marvel with their pitch; both confirmed shortly after that they had reached a deal to write the screenplay. The pair had proposed a take on the character that was "diametrically opposed" to the previous Spider-Man films, creating a laundry list of all the elements seen in those films and actively trying to avoid re-using them. They chose to focus on the high school aspects of the character rather than the "drama and weight of the tragedy that leads to the origin of Spider-Man". They felt this would differentiate him from the other MCU superheroes as well. Daley said the film was about Peter "finding his place" in the MCU, with the writing team wanting the film to focus on him "coming to terms with his new abilities and not yet being good with them, and carrying with him some real human fears and weaknesses", such as a fear of heights when he has to scale the Washington Monument. Daley noted, "Even within the context of this movie, I don't think you would feel that fear of heights or even the vertigo the audience feels in that scene if you establish him as swinging from skyscrapers at the top of the movie." The writers also wanted to avoid the skyscrapers of Manhattan because of how often they were used in the other films, and instead wrote the character into locations such as "the suburbs, on a golf course, the Staten Island Ferry, Coney Island, and even Washington, D.C." One of the first sequences they pitched was "seeing Spider-Man attached to a plane 10,000 feet up in the air, where he had absolutely no safety net. ... you're familiar with the sort of areas he's been in, why not turn it on its head and make it something different that people haven't seen before?" The pair conceded that the film took a more grounded, "low-stakes" approach than previous films, which avoided having to explain why the Avengers were not helping, since a world-threatening problem would logically require the "big guys".

Marvel encouraged Daley and Goldstein to express their own sense of humor in the script, with Daley saying, "When you're seeing the world through the eyes of a fun, funny kid, you can really embrace that voice, and not give him the cookie-cutter one-liners that you're so accustomed to hearing from Peter Parker." Inspired by their experiences working on sitcoms, the writers also looked to create "a network of strong characters" to surround Peter with in the film. In October 2015, Watts said he was looking to make the film a coming-of-age story to see the growth of Peter, citing Can't Buy Me Love (1987), Say Anything... (1989), and Almost Famous (2000) as some of his favorite films in that genre. It was this aspect of the film that had initially got Watts interested in directing it, as he had already been looking to make a coming-of-age story when he heard that the new Spider-Man would be younger than previous incarnations. Watts re-read the original Spider-Man comics in preparation for the film, and "came to a new realization" about the character's original popularity, feeling that he introduced a new perspective to the comics that had already established "a crazy spectacular Marvel Universe ... to give a regular person's perspective on it". He felt that this was also the responsibility of this film since it had to introduce Spider-Man to the already established MCU. Specific comics that Watts noted as potential influences were Ultimate Spider-Man (2000–2011) and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (2004–2009). In December, Oliver Scholl signed on to be the production designer for the film.

Pre-production

Watts wanted to heavily pre-visualize the film, especially its action sequences, as he does on all his films. For Homecoming, Watts worked with a team to "figure out the visual language for the action sequences and ... try stuff out before" filming began to help Watts practice given his lack of experience working on large-scale films. For the "web-slinging" sequences, Watts wanted to avoid the big "swoopy" camera moves that had been previously used and instead "keep it all as grounded as possible. So, whether it was shooting with a drone camera or a helicopter or a cable-cam, or even just handheld, up on a roof chasing after him, I wanted it to feel like we were there with him."

In January 2016, Sony shifted the film's release date from July 28, 2017, to July 7, 2017, and said the film would be digitally remastered for IMAX 3D in post-production. J. K. Simmons expressed interest in reprising his role as J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. In early March, Zendaya was cast in the film as Michelle, and Tomei was confirmed as May Parker. The following month, Feige confirmed that characters from previous MCU films would appear, and clarified that the deal formed with Sony does not specify which characters can and cannot crossover. He noted that the sharing between the studios was done with "good faith" in order "to have more toys to play with as we put together a story", and that "the agreement was that it is very much a Sony Pictures movie... we are the creative producers. We are the ones hiring the actor, introducing him in Civil War, and then working right now on the script and soon to be shooting." Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman further added that Sony has final greenlight authority, but were deferring creatively to Marvel. At CinemaCon 2016, Sony announced the title of the film to be Spider-Man: Homecoming, a reference to the common high school tradition homecoming as well as the character "coming home" to Marvel and the MCU. Tony Revolori – who had auditioned for Peter Parker – and Laura Harrier joined the cast as classmates of Peter's, and Downey Jr. was revealed to be in the film as Stark. Watts noted that Stark "was always a part of" the film's story because of his interactions with Peter in Civil War. Downey Jr. was paid $10 million for his involvement.

Also in April, Michael Keaton entered talks to play a villain, but dropped out of discussions shortly thereafter due to scheduling conflicts with the film The Founder (2016). At this point, John Leguizamo was approached to fill the role and entered negotiations to do so. Keaton soon reentered talks for the role after a change in schedule for The Founder, which necessitated Marvel to ask Leguizamo if he would step away from the role in order to cast Keaton; Keaton closed the deal in late May. Marvel offered to cast Leguizamo in another role, which he considered "tiny" and declined. Mark Hamill was interested in playing the film's villain in case Keaton turned down the offer, but Keaton reconsidered the offer in time. In June, Michael Barbieri was cast as a friend of Peter's, Kenneth Choi was cast as Peter's high school principal, and Logan Marshall-Green was cast as another villain alongside Keaton's character, while Donald Glover and Martin Starr joined the cast in undisclosed roles. Watts said that he wanted the cast to reflect Queens as "one of the most diverse places in the world", with Feige adding that "we want everyone to recognize themselves in every portion of our universe. With this cast especially, it really feels like this is absolutely what has to happen and continue." This is also different from the previous films, which were "set in a lily-white Queens high school". Additionally, Marvel made a conscious decision to mostly avoid including or referencing characters who appeared in previous Spider-Man films, outside of major ones like Peter and May Parker, and Flash Thompson. This included the Daily Bugle, with co-producer Eric Hauserman Carroll saying, "We toyed with it for a while, but again, we didn't want to go down that road right away, and if we do do a Daily Bugle, we want to do it in a way that feels contemporary". This also included the character Mary Jane Watson, but Zendaya's Michelle was eventually given the initials "MJ" as a nod to that character. Feige said that the point of this is "to have fun with references while at the same time having it be different characters that can provide a different dynamic".

Spider-Man's costume in the film has more technical improvements than the previous suits, including the logo on the chest being a remote drone, an AI system similar to Stark's J.A.R.V.I.S., a holographic interface, a parachute, a tracking device for Stark to track Peter, a heater, an airbag, the ability to light up, and the ability to augment reality with the eyepieces. Stark also builds in a "training wheels" protocol, to initially limit Peter's access to all of its features. Carroll noted Marvel went through the comics and "pulled out all the sort of fun and wacky things the suit did" to include in the Homecoming suit. Spider-Man's web-shooters have various settings, first teased at the end of Civil War, which Carroll explained allowed him to "adjust the spray" to different settings like the spinning web, web ball, or ricochet web. He compared this to a DSLR camera.

Filming

Principal photography began on June 20, 2016, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, under the working title Summer of George. Salvatore Totino served as director of photography. Filming also took place in Atlanta, with locations including Grady High School, Downtown Atlanta, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Piedmont Park, the Georgia World Congress Center, and the West End neighborhood. Holland said building New York sets in Atlanta was cheaper than actually filming in New York, a location closely associated with the character, though the production may "end up in New York for one week or two". A replica of the Staten Island Ferry was built in Atlanta, with the ability to open and close in half in 10 to 12 seconds and be flooded with 40,000 gallons of water in 8 seconds. Additional filming also occurred at two magnet schools in the Van Nuys and Reseda neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

Casting continued after the start of production, with the inclusion of Isabella Amara, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Josie Totah, Hannibal Buress, Selenis Leyva, Abraham Attah, Michael Mando, Tyne Daly, Garcelle Beauvais, Tiffany Espensen, and Angourie Rice in unspecified roles, with Bokeem Woodbine joining as an additional villain. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2016, Marvel confirmed the castings of Keaton, Zendaya, Glover, Harrier, Revolori, Daly, and Woodbine, while revealing Zendaya, Harrier, and Revolori's roles as Michelle, Liz Allan, and Flash Thompson, respectively, and announcing the casting of Jacob Batalon as Ned. Lewis Pullman also auditioned for Ned. It was also revealed that the Adrian Toomes / Vulture would be the film's villain, while the writing teams of Watts and Christopher Ford, and Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, joined Goldstein and Daley in writing the screenplay, from Goldstein and Daley's story. Eric Pearson, a member of Marvel Studios's writing program who had written the Marvel One-Shot films, did uncredited work on the film as well. Watts praised Goldstein and Daley's drafts as "really fun and funny", and said that they "sort of established the broad strokes of the movie", with him and Ford, close friends since childhood, then re-writing the script based on specific ideas that Watts had and things that he wanted to film, which he said was a "pretty substantial structural pass, rearranging things and building it into the sort of story arc we wanted it to be". McKenna and Sommers then joined the film to deal with changes to the script during filming, as "it's all a little bit flexible when you get to set. You try things out, and you just need someone to be writing while you're shooting."

Harrier noted that the young actors in the film "constantly refer to ourselves as The Breakfast Club". Shortly after, Martha Kelly joined the cast in an unspecified role. In August, Michael Chernus was cast as Phineas Mason / Tinkerer, while Jona Xiao joined the cast in an unspecified role, and Buress said he was playing a gym teacher. By September 2016, Jon Favreau was reprising his role as Happy Hogan from the Iron Man series, and filming concluded in Atlanta and moved to New York City. Locations in the latter city included Astoria, Queens; Sunnyside, Queens; St. George, Staten Island; Manhattan; and Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn. Additionally, UFC fighter Tyron Woodley said he had been considered for a villain role in the film, but had to drop out due to a prior commitment with Fox Sports. Principal photography wrapped on October 2, 2016, in New York City, with some additional filming taking place later in the month in Berlin, Germany, near the Brandenburg Gate.

Post-production

In November 2016, Feige confirmed that Keaton would play Adrian Toomes / Vulture, while Woodbine was revealed as Herman Schultz / Shocker. In March 2017, Harrier said the film was undergoing re-shoots, and Evans was set to appear as Steve Rogers / Captain America in an instructional fitness video. Watts was inspired by The President's Fitness Challenge for this, feeling that Captain America would be the obvious version of that for the MCU. He then started brainstorming other public service announcements (PSA) starring Captain America, about "just anything you could think of, we had poor Captain America do it". Watts said that many of the additional PSA videos would be featured on the home media of the film. According to Goldstein, additional videos featuring other Avengers were planned at some point. Watts confirmed that the company Stark creates that leads Toomes on his villainous path in the film is Damage Control, which Watts felt "just fit in with our overall philosophy with the kind of story we wanted to tell" and created a lot of practical questions Watts wanted to use "to drive the story".

The film features multiple post-credit scenes. The first gives the Vulture a chance at redemption, showing him protect Peter from another villain. Watts said this "was a really interesting thing in the development of the story. You couldn't just rely on the tropes of the villain being a murderer and killing a bunch of people. He had to be redeemable in some capacity in the end and that he believes everything he said, especially about his family." The second post-credits scene is an additional Captain America PSA, where he talks about the value of patience—a meta-referential joke at the expense of the audience, who have just waited through the film's credits to see the scene. This was a "last-minute addition" to the film. Watts completed work on Homecoming at the beginning of June 2017, approving the final visual effects shots. He stated that he had never been told that he could not do something by Marvel or Sony, saying, "You assume you'll have to fight for every little weird thing you wanna do, but I didn't really ever run into that. I got to do kind of everything I wanted." That month, Starr explained that he was playing the academic decathlon coach at Peter's high school, and Marshall-Green was said to be portraying another Shocker.

Visual effects

Visual effects for the film were completed by Sony Pictures Imageworks, Industrial Light & Magic, Luma Pictures, Digital Domain, Cantina Creative, Iloura, Trixter, and Method Studios. Executive producer Victoria Alonso initially did not want Imageworks, which worked on all previous Spider-Man films, to work on Homecoming, in order to give it a different look than those earlier films. She changed her mind after seeing what she called "phenomenal" test material from the vendor. The film's main-on-end title sequence was designed by Perception.

Trixter contributed over 300 shots for the film, including the opening scene at Grand Central Terminal, the sequence that retells the events of Civil War from Peter's perspective, the sequence where Toomes takes Liz and Peter to the dance, the school battle between Peter and Schultz, and the scene around and within the Avengers compound. They also worked on both Spider-Man suits and the spider tracer. Trixter created additional salvage workers to populate the Grand Central scene, whose clothes and proportions were able to be altered to create variation. For the battle between Peter and Schultz, Trixter used an all-digital Spider-Man in his homemade suit, which came from Imageworks, with Trixter applying a rigging, muscle, and cloth system to it "to mimic the appearance of the rather loose training suit". They also created the effects for Schultz's gauntlets and had to change the setting from the Atlanta set to Queens, by using a CGI school and adding 360 degrees of matte paintings for the mid to far-distance elements. Trixter received concept art and basic geometry that was used previously for the Avengers compound, but ended up remodeling it for the way it appears in Homecoming. Models and textures for Spider-Man's Avengers costume were created by Framestore for use in a future MCU film, with Trixter creating the vault that it appears in. Trixter VFX supervisor Dominik Zimmerle said the idea was "to have a clean, high tech, presentation Vault for the new suit. It should appear distinctively 'Stark' originated".

Digital Domain worked on the Staten Island Ferry battle, creating the CGI versions of Spider-Man, the Vulture suit, Iron Man, and Spider-Man's drone. Digital Domain was able to LIDAR an actual Staten Island Ferry, as well as the version created on set, to help with creating their digital version. Lou Pecora, visual effects supervisor at Digital Domain, called that sequence "brutal" because "the way they were shot, it was lit to be a certain time of day, and afterwards it was decided to change that time of day". Sony Pictures Imageworks created much of the third act of the film when Peter confronts Toomes on the plane and beach in his homemade suit, and Toomes is in an upgraded Vulture suit. Some elements of Vulture's first suit were shared with Imageworks, but the remainder were created by them "based on a maquette". For the plane's cloaking ability, Imageworks was inspired by Adaptiv IR Camouflage tank cloaking system by BAE Systems, which "uses a series of titles to cloak against infrared". For their web design, which was based on the one created for Civil War, Digital Domain referenced polar bear hair because of its translucent nature. Imageworks also looked to the Civil War webs, as well as to those they had created for previous Spider-Man films, in which "the web[s] had [...] tiny barbs that aided in hooking on to things". For this film, they "dialed back the barbs" to line up more closely with the other web designs created for this film. Method Studios worked on the Washington Monument sequence. Iron Man's armor in the film, the Mark XLVII, is a recolored version of the MK XLVI armor introduced in Civil War; this was done because Sony did not have the budget to create a new Iron Man suit. Feige requested the color scheme resemble the Ultimate Iron Man armor from the comics.

Music

Michael Giacchino, who made the music for Doctor Strange, was chosen to create the music for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Recording started on April 11, 2017. The music includes a theme from the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon show. The soundtrack was released by Sony Masterworks on July 7, 2017.

Marketing

The filmmakers and actors shared clips and trailers from the movie at big events like San Diego Comic-Con and other movie conventions. The first trailer was shown on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on December 8, 2016, and quickly became very popular, being watched by over 266 million people in just one week. They also created special scenes just for the trailers, like Spider-Man flying with Iron Man.

More trailers were released in March and May 2017, building excitement. Fans and critics thought these trailers looked promising and said the movie might be the best Spider-Man film yet. Posters and ads were also released, with some getting mixed reviews. The movie had many partners for promotions, including tech companies, food brands, and game makers, making the marketing campaign one of the biggest ever for a Spider-Man film.

Release

Theatrical

Spider-Man: Homecoming first showed at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles on June 28, 2017. It started showing in the United Kingdom on July 5 and then in many other countries on July 6. The movie came out in the United States on July 7, showing in 4,348 theaters, including special 3D versions. It was supposed to come out a bit later, on July 28, but it came out early. This movie is part of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In March 2024, Sony announced that all of their Spider-Man movies would show in theaters again to celebrate Columbia Pictures's 100th anniversary. Spider-Man: Homecoming showed again on May 20, 2024.

Home media

Spider-Man: Homecoming could be watched at home starting September 26, 2017, and was also sold on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, Ultra HD Blu-ray, and DVD on October 17, 2017. These versions had extra videos about making the movie, scenes that were cut out, and funny mistakes.

In April 2021, Sony made a deal with Disney so people could watch older Spider-Man movies and Marvel content on Disney+ and Hulu after they were done showing on Netflix. The movie was already on Starz and FX. People in the United Kingdom and Australia could watch it on Disney+ starting June 17, 2022, and people in the United States could watch it starting May 12, 2023.

Reception

Box office

Spider-Man: Homecoming made $334.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $546 million in other countries, totaling $880.9 million worldwide. It was the second-biggest global IMAX opening for a Sony film with $18 million. By September 24, 2017, the film had earned $874.4 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing superhero film of 2017 and the sixth-largest film based on a Marvel character. The film’s net profit was calculated at $200.1 million.

The film earned $50.9 million on its opening day in the United States and Canada, with a total weekend gross of $117 million, the top film for that weekend. It was the second-highest opening for both a Spider-Man film and a Sony film, after Spider-Man 3. In its second weekend, the film earned $44.2 million, falling to second place behind War for the Planet of the Apes. Outside the United States and Canada, Spider-Man: Homecoming earned $140.5 million in its opening weekend from 56 markets, becoming number one in 50 of them. South Korea had the highest Wednesday opening day gross, contributing to a $25.4 million five-day opening in the country. Brazil had the largest July opening day of all time, with $2 million.

Critical response

The film received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it had an approval rating of 92%, with an average score of 7.6/10, based on 400 reviews. Metacritic gave the film a score of 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Reviewers praised the film for its light tone, younger portrayal of Peter, and Michael Keaton’s performance. Some critics felt the film was unique and refreshing, especially for focusing on Peter’s school life. Others appreciated the film’s focus on making Peter Parker a realistically youthful and grounded character. However, some critics pointed out that the film had superhero genre clichés and underwritten female characters.

Accolades

Sequels

Main articles: Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home

Further information: List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films

A sequel called Spider-Man: Far From Home came out on July 2, 2019. Jon Watts directed it again, and the writers were Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Tom Holland, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, and Jacob Batalon all returned in their roles, and Jake Gyllenhaal joined as Mysterio. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders also came back as Nick Fury and Maria Hill.

Another film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, was announced in September 2019 after Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures settled their differences. Jon Watts directed this one too, with the same writers. Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, and Tony Revolori returned. Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong also returned as Doctor Strange and Wong. Some actors from earlier Spider-Man movies came back too, like Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as their versions of Spider-Man, along with Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Thomas Haden Church, Rhys Ifans, and Jamie Foxx in their old roles. Spider-Man: No Way Home was released on December 17, 2021.

In November 2021, it was announced that Sony and Marvel Studios planned to make at least three more Spider-Man movies with Tom Holland, and work on the first of these new films was getting started.