CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Directors Recall Battles With Sony To Cast Tom Holland As SPIDER-MAN

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Directors Recall Battles With Sony To Cast Tom Holland As SPIDER-MAN

Cherry directors Joe and Anthony Russo have reflected on casting Tom Holland as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, revealing the struggles they faced working with Sony Pictures at the time...

By JoshWilding - Feb 26, 2021 07:02 AM EST
Source: GQ

Tom Holland made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Spider-Man in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, but it sounds a lot like directors Joe and Anthony Russo struggled to get Sony Pictures on board with that casting.

During an interview with GQ, Joe admits that casting Peter Parker proved to be a "unique experience" due to the fact that they found themselves working with a rival studio.

"I can’t think of another time in movie history where two studios shared an asset as valuable as Spider-Man," he explains. "So, of course, this made it a little bit of a complicated process from a casting standpoint. Like, who is going to be responsible for the casting of this role? Anthony and I are extremely opinionated and very bullish in our opinions, especially when it comes to cast because we cherish our opinions with them and have a very particular taste when it comes to our work style."

The Russo Brothers fully credit casting director Sarah Halley Finn with finding Holland, and seemingly blame Sony for slowing down the process!

"We talked with Feige at Marvel about Holland and he got excited and then we went to Sony," continues Joe. "And they were like, ‘Let’s think about it for a minute.’ We could tell we were meeting resistance from Sony. So we brought [Holland] back, brought him back, brought him back, and we were relentless in our pursuit of jamming him down the throat of the studio who owns this IP. It came down to a fight, yet Sony just kept dragging their feet."

Asked what they believe held things up, the Russos explain that it felt like the studio was "reticent, nervous, about handing off something that could ultimately cost them hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars down the line."

That's understandable; Marvel Studios had delivered countless hits by 2016, but if they cast the wrong actor as Spider-Man, it would set the franchise back even further after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 disappointed. 

Anthony adds: "Sony’s reservations were: ‘Are we loaning it? Or are we giving it to them to help us reinvent it in a way that adds value for us?' It was the first time Spider-Man had ever been cast as an actual teenager, right? Which was very important to us; there was a distinct nervousness of casting a kid."

It all worked out in the end, of course, and Holland has spent the past six years playing the web-slinger. What the future holds in store for him beyond Spider-Man: No Way Home remains to be seen, but we know that there's at least one more MCU appearance in store for his Peter Parker in the coming years. 


Click on the "Next" button below to check out things you
never knew about Sony's plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3!

10. The Sinister Six Recruits Spider-Man

Barb22144312

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 wrapped up with the reveal that Harry Osborn and Gustav Friers had managed to get their hands on technology capable of outfitting a team of villains. That would have meant skipping the origin stories of the characters, which was an odd decision when they're not just bad guys in fancy suits. 

Sinister Six was going to spin out of the events of this sequel, with Drew Goddard's film expected to feature Doctor Octopus recruiting Spidey to his team under false pretences before his true colors were revealed.

The team was set to battle the alien Gog in the Savage Land, with the MacGuffin of this version the actual Pandora's Box. 

Another idea was to have Spider-Man don the Venom symbiote to ask for this group's help in stopping Carnage, though that idea appeared to be scrapped after the alien costume was cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2's final sequence showing what was hidden in the bowels of Oscorp.
 

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regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 2/26/2021, 7:31 AM
I thought Marvel Studios wanted Asa Butterfield?
Origame
Origame - 2/26/2021, 8:34 AM
@regularmovieguy - yes, and I heard Sony wanted Holland. So this is just one of those things that might never get an official answer and is just heresy, like with old man cap in endgame.
Boyle360
Boyle360 - 2/26/2021, 12:14 PM
@Origame - wait what about old man cap?
Origame
Origame - 2/26/2021, 12:31 PM
@Boyle360 - how the time travel worked there. The ending implies he stayed in the past and just naturally waited to get back to present day, something the writers claim is how it went, but that breaks the time travel rules in the movie. Another possibility is that Steve lived his life in a parallel timeline then just found another way to come back. This is what the directors claim happened.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 2/26/2021, 7:32 AM
I don't get why Sony wouldn't trust Marvel with casting Spider-Man. In my opinion, the MCU has a near flawless track records of casting. Nothing to worry about at all
SimplyAz
SimplyAz - 2/26/2021, 8:46 AM
@bkmeijer -

Glad that Marvel went for a someone younger to play him.
I always assumed that Tom Hollands Gymnastic background had an influence on his casting, makes sense when you consider Spider-man has to be able to really move.

YonnyLayna
YonnyLayna - 2/26/2021, 9:50 AM
@SimplyAz - and they make him CG....
SimplyAz
SimplyAz - 2/26/2021, 9:54 AM
@YonnyLayna -

Along with stunt doubles etc
Maybe it helps with some scenes or always good to have a fit actor
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 2/26/2021, 7:35 AM
That's really interesting because I remember the rumour going around in 2015 pointing to the opposite. I remember there being talk that Sony wanted Holland while Marvel wanted Charlie Rowe or whatever his name was.

Guess it just goes to show there's more to ever story...
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 2/26/2021, 7:40 AM
@Nightwing1015

Butterfield blew his load on Reddit
vegetaray
vegetaray - 2/26/2021, 7:40 AM
@Nightwing1015 - I kind of remember the same thing too...I swear I read an article that said Rowe, Butterfield, and Holland were the top three...

Marvel was behind Butterfield and Rowe while Sony was pushing for Holland...🤷‍♂️...Shows we never really know what’s what with this stuff until there’s someone who was / is involved, and are willing to talk about it...
DarkDetective
DarkDetective - 2/26/2021, 7:56 AM
@Nightwing1015 - I remember wanting Rowe sooo bad, he looked like the perfect Peter Parker to me
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRnVQMyzTVaNZ3u2fgsY05Q-kNBfsK977TZCA&usqp=CAU
Superspecialawesomeguy
Superspecialawesomeguy - 2/26/2021, 8:36 AM
@DarkDetective - Yeah he was my favourite for the role as well, plus he looks almost exaclty like the Peter Prker from The Spectacular Spider-Man tv show; it's almost scary tbh:



AzorAhai
AzorAhai - 2/26/2021, 8:54 AM
@Superspecialawesomeguy - Wow, he owns a blue shirt too
String
String - 2/26/2021, 2:41 PM
@DarkDetective - I've been wanting Charlie Rowe for Richard Rider's Nova for years now. He's still the perfect age to be a college-level superhero.

I mean, if he was the back-up choice for Tom, you have to think Marvel thought high enough of his acting to be a marquee character and would be able to introduce him in another role. Why not Nova?
Ace101
Ace101 - 2/26/2021, 5:33 PM
@String - yes college level richard rider! Start his story there please!!
Also don't know much about this actor but looks the part
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 2/26/2021, 7:36 AM
The Russos choose Tom Holland, with Feige in their corner...

Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 2/26/2021, 7:39 AM
Asa Butterfree rn:


"LIARS!!!!"
L0RDbuckethead
L0RDbuckethead - 2/26/2021, 12:10 PM
@Doomsday8888 - Asa off to irrelevancy:
Kurne
Kurne - 2/26/2021, 7:39 AM
I was always curious about the casting process for this, in terms of who was in charge or at least who had the bigger say over the other. Especially for the Russos being apart of it because its their movie, ignoring the franchise's future as a whole.

Seems like Sony just had to pull the trigger, which is fair.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 2/26/2021, 7:41 AM
Asa Butterfield running his around town
OmegaDaGrodd
OmegaDaGrodd - 2/26/2021, 7:44 AM
The Russos under their Marvel contract



The Russos now



I can't wait until we're 5-6 years in the future when everyone involved in the Spider-Man stuff just unloads on what I'm sure was a buttload Sony related tomfoolery
MrCamw1
MrCamw1 - 2/26/2021, 7:44 AM
Off topic but what's more evil? Dog murder corpse reanimation? Hayward or Agatha? Both I really enjoy.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 2/26/2021, 8:11 AM
@MrCamw1 - Hayward seems more evil because who’s to say sparky wasn’t made by Agatha and not a real dog?
YonnyLayna
YonnyLayna - 2/26/2021, 9:54 AM
@MyCoolYoung - Her, she said I killed him.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 2/26/2021, 10:23 AM
@YonnyLayna - I know but we don’t know if she’s the one that created sparky in the first place
Kyos
Kyos - 2/26/2021, 7:48 AM
No matter the process, I'm still really glad we ended with Tom Holland as Spidey, and Spidey in the MCU.
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 2/26/2021, 7:49 AM
Clearly this gamble payed off.
I had no idea who Tom was until he was casted as Spider-Man.
soldier1
soldier1 - 2/26/2021, 7:53 AM
So I've watched the airport fight scene many times and one thing keeps bothering me...Did Cap try to kill Spidey or can we assume that Cap already knew that Spidey was strong enough to hold that walkway bridge up rather than be crushed by it?
MarDCel
MarDCel - 2/26/2021, 9:14 AM
@soldier1 - knowing cap's back ground, he's able to adapt to fighting styles. Meaning after he got a couple of hits from spidey, he was able to tell what kind of strength he was dealing with. Same with batroc in winter soldier, usually guys fight with their fists but batroc uses his legs. Watch the fight carefully and see how he figures out batrocs fighting style in the scene and ends up beating him, u guessed it, a kick. I love that this part of cap made into the movies. Russo nailed it.
DannRamm113
DannRamm113 - 2/26/2021, 7:54 AM
I'll never forget what my buddy said when he first saw Tom Holland had been cast (Pre working out for the role)


"Is this guy a Make a Wish kid who wanted to be spider-man?"
Blergh
Blergh - 2/26/2021, 8:02 AM
Sony standing in the way of good choices? No surprise on my part.
They've been nothing but a pain for everyone that cares about the Spider-Man franchise, always chasing the newest trends rather than artistic decisions.

Remember when TASM was marketed as a Twilight esque romantic drama?
How TASM2 was supposed to kick off an entire cinematic universe?
How they let Raimi develop SM4 and then cut him off to reboot?
How they forced Venom into SM3?
How they still try to weasel their way into their own MCU and gain a stake in it?


Generally Sony is a numbers first company that never valued creative integrity. Be it The Emoji Movie or the general Spider-Man disaster
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