When Jon Watts was handed the keys to Spider-Man: Homecoming, he probably didn't realize he'd be able to play with multiple Avengers as part of the package. We now know that Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), is serving as Peter Parker's mentor -- of sorts -- after recruiting the young hero to come fight in Captain America: Civil War. And we have seen, in trailers and commercials, that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) appears in Homecoming in PSAs that he recorded for such things as the Presidential Fitness Challenge.
Evans is wearing his earliest Cap costume (as seen above), meaning he likely recorded these PSAs as Steve from the early Avengers days. When I asked Jon Watts about the process of capturing these videos with Chris Evans on set, he told me the hilarious story of how they came to be:
I think that was my idea, to have the Captain America Fitness Challenge. You know, it's so collaborative. I really don't remember whose idea is what, at this point. But I just remember having the President's Fitness Challenge when I was in elementary school and middle school. You had to do different activities, and at the end of it, I think you got a little pin or a badge. I was like, 'How do we incorporate Captain America into high school?' You would have the Captain America Fitness Challenge .He would be the person teaching you about proper nutrition, and brushing your teeth. [Laughs]When we shot those... you talk about feeling like you are filming a documentary? That's what it was like. It was like Captain America showed up. I generated so many of these dumb things, along with one of the other writers. We just wrote -- everyone had ideas for things that Captain America could say [on screen]. So we just put them into a teleprompter, and had Evans stand there and really read through them. It's really funny, because Chris is so NOT like Captain America in person, but him being Cap and then just reading this stuff totally fresh, in that old costume, was so funny. It was all so very funny. ... There's a very fun improv comedy to all of that. We shot so many more than are in the movie, too. Which will probably be on the Blu-ray someday.
Having Captain America on the monitor, lecturing the kids in Peter Parker's high school, is one of many touches that immediately helps Spider-Man: Homecoming feels like an essential part of the much larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. As we know, Peter works with Tony Stark and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) as he returns from Berlin, where he fought alongside Team Iron Man. But now that he's back home in Queens, we see different ways that Peter's home life is affected by bigger events in the MCU. Listen for the jokes in these PSAs. They are some of the biggest laughs in this extremely funny Marvel movie.
Spider-Man: Homecoming casts our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man (Tom Holland) against The Vulture (Michael Keaton), a villain using stolen alien tech obtained after the Battle of New York to create high-tech weaponry... like his Vulture suit. After this adventure, we'll see Holland in Avengers: Infinity War, while Marvel and Sony have dated the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming for July 2019. Which Avengers would you like to see in that movie? Let us know in the comments.
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