SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Concept Artist Explains Why Budget Restraints Led To "Ultimate" Makeover For Iron Man

Spider-Man: Homecoming concept art reveals a closer look at Iron Man's Mk XLVII armour in the MCU, but it turns out that minimal changes were made to the suit because of Sony Pictures' budget restraints.

By JoshWilding - Feb 10, 2022 06:02 AM EST

Filed Under: Homecoming

Peter Parker first swung into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, but it was the following year that the wall-crawler was properly reintroduced in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Looking to capitalise on their newfound relationship with Marvel Studios, Sony Pictures added heaps of MCU references to that movie, including some big cameos.

Chris Evans showed up as Captain America, while Robert Downey Jr. played a supporting role as Iron Man, though his armour only underwent a few superficial changes rather than the normal redesign between movies. Now, we know why Tony Stark's suit ended up with a new colour scheme clearly inspired by Iron Man's appearance in The Ultimates comic books.

"Those with a keen eye will realize this model is just a recolour of my Mk XLVI from [Captain America: Civil War]," concept artist Phil Saunders explains in the Instagram post below. "Sony didn’t have the VFX budget for a whole new suit, so Kevin Feige requested a nod to the Ultimate Iron Man in the repaint. And after a few variations, the Mk XLVII was born."

It's interesting to hear that Sony Pictures didn't have room in the budget to give Iron Man an overhaul, but it clearly wasn't a major priority for the studio. Just the Avenger's presence in Spider-Man: Homecoming had the desired effect on box office takings, and a new armour wouldn't have changed that (switching up the colour no doubt sold a lot more toys on Disney's end, though).

Check out this amazing new concept art from the 2017 release below:

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A post shared by Phil Saunders (@philjdsaunders)

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19 Comments

Blergh - 2/10/2022, 6:10 AM

"Sony didn’t have the VFX budget for a whole new suit"

having worked in film/TV and having worked with VFX teams I call BS on this.
Modelers and animators earn next to nothing, new designs may take time (which I think is more the reason here) but they don't cost anything more.

Boyle360 - 2/10/2022, 8:01 AM

@Blergh - Time. Time is money.

TheHumanSpider - 2/10/2022, 8:29 AM

@Blergh - I call BS on this too. This is the Spider - Man franchise. This is like their marquee property and Sony isn't willing to lay a little scratch for it? C'mon.

Blergh - 2/10/2022, 8:45 AM

@TheHumanSpider - I'm gonna go with "they wanted a memorable suit from the MCU, not something that could be misconstrued as a 'Sony Suit' "

eGGtheGreat - 2/10/2022, 6:10 AM

Really wish he would have worn the actual ultimate armor in at least one of the movies.

bkmeijer2 - 2/10/2022, 6:22 AM

I didn't really mind it being a recolour. Not every suit has to be a visual update too.

At one point Stark would've made so many upgrades that the optimal suit that suits all his needs has been reached, and don't need to change what works

Twenty23Three - 2/10/2022, 6:27 AM

The Iron Man suits looked progressively worse as the films went on so, one less redesign was probably a good thing

AC1 - 2/10/2022, 6:47 AM

In fairness it looks better than the actual Ultimate suit anyway. The helmet on that thing in the comics looks so off...

Fares - 2/10/2022, 7:16 AM

Well the ultimate suit is horrendous anyway so I'm not mad.

OmegaDaGrodd - 2/10/2022, 7:45 AM

Getting the Ultimate layout without the actual design is definitely a Win, because the design from the comics is super wonky

m1doriya - 2/10/2022, 7:49 AM

The entire movie looked like shit

dracula - 2/10/2022, 3:18 PM

Should have repainted a less recognizable suit.

Iron Man 3 had 42 that we never got a good look at why not use one of them

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