Speaking via livestream from Barcelona at an exclusive Q&A for Supanova Expo, Jon Watts shared some secrets about his soon-to-be released summer hit, Spider-Man: Homecoming. Hypable was present at the panel, which took place last weekend in Sydney, Australia, and was able to ask a question about a rather important topic.
Our question for Watts was regarding his position as one of the large handful of male newcomers (including Colin Trevorrow for Jurassic World, Gareth Edwards for Godzilla, and even Marvel’s own Russo brothers, to an extent) who’ve been given the directorial reins to a massive franchise film based on their vision despite having very little prior Hollywood experience.
Given that Watts seems to have created something well up to scratch with Spider-Man: Homecoming, we wondered if he had any strong opinions on the “experience” excuse being a contributing factor to female directors not often being chosen as a leap of faith, citing Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy’s comments (“They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience”) as she explained the studio’s reluctance to hire a woman to direct a Star Wars film.
A disclaimer: it isn’t Watts’ fault that he was born white and male, and it isn’t a crime that he pitched himself for something he really wanted and was successful. He genuinely seems like good people – perhaps the best of the bunch, in terms of the recent slew of obscure male directors who’ve been offered the chance to bring our childhood heroes back to the screen – however, he’s certainly in a position where this double standard has allowed him a look-in that it maybe (definitely) wouldn’t offer a woman with the same resume.
Watts had not been previously made aware of Kennedy’s comments, and seemed quite shocked to hear them (“Did they say that? Oh, wow.”) but gave a rather candid and thoughtful answer for someone in his position.
“It’s a great question. I mean, I didn’t hire me, so I can’t really talk about that kind of decision. It’s up to producers out there to change things, and to hire all kinds of different people. That’s what I would want to see. I want to see movies made by all kinds of people. The experience question is a great question… I don’t think that should… I don’t know. I wish I had a better answer. I don’t know why I was hired, honestly, but I think it’s important to just keep pushing people to hire more different directors so it’s not the same kind of people making the same kind of movie.”
Watts had plenty more to say about the movie itself, which hits screens on July 7. Here’s some of the highlights:
On the massive scope of ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’
“I try to honestly not think about how big it is too much because I don’t want to freak myself out. The scaling up from making a low-budget movie to a massive blockbuster is a crazy experience. What’s nice is when you make indie movies you’re used to just doing it all basically yourself, or with a really small group of people, so you get really good at planning things, and not being wasteful. Rather than changing the way I work, I just try to use that same approach on a bigger budget, and what’s nice is that you have a lot of people to help you and you’re able to get the very best people in the world to support you. Otherwise, you just do the same thing – try to stay focused on the characters and tell the best story that you can and what’s great is that if you want to do something really crazy you get to do it. There’s no one to say ‘that’s impossible.’”
On Tom Holland as Peter Parker
“He’s as excited to be Peter Parker as Peter Parker is to be Spider-Man.” Watts praised his star’s enthusiasm and excitement at length, explaining that Holland feels like the right age to capture the true teen-hood of Spider-Man. The film’s extremely youthful tone is something Watts felt very passionate about: “Even if it wasn’t Spider-Man, the idea of being 15 years old and having superpowers and not being able to tell anyone? It’s just a really cool setup for me.”
Watts wanted to make a superhero movie that captured how great it would be to have all those amazing powers – not eliminating the struggles, conflict or responsibility, but showing the hero has having more fun with it than most of the Marvel heroes do, and he says that Holland has captured that in way that’s great to watch. “And on top of that, he can actually do a backflip.” Holland’s athletic dance background has apparently helped immensely, allowing him to personally perform lots of acrobatic stunts as Spider-Man.
In terms of Peter’s journey with the Avengers, Watts sees it as somewhat of a metaphor for his own film in the larger Marvel canon – “It’s about a kid who wants to be a part of that bigger universe, and the bigger universe is like ‘you might not necessarily be ready yet.’” This is apparently comparable to the setting of Spider-Man: Homecoming – we’ll be expanding out of the confines of the Marvel universe with which we’re familiar to visit more low-key parts of it where no one has spent that much time yet.
On Spidey’s ‘Captain America: Civil War’ introduction
“Basically, Tom Holland and I were hired on the same day.” Spider-Man first entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of Team Iron Man in the Avenger-studded Captain America: Civil War. Speaking about his creative control over the character’s introduction as Tony Stark’s new protégé in the Russo brothers’ Civil War, Watts told the audience that one of the first things he did upon landing the job was to sit down with the Russos to plan for Peter, and that he was on set when his star’s scenes were being shot.
“I gave a lot of input on the basics: what I thought Peter’s apartment should look like, how he should dress – things like that.” The Russos, he assures us, are great, and he had plenty of trust in them, but as the director of Peter’s upcoming solo movie, he admits “I did just want to make sure that we were all on the same page, so that the movie that was in my head wouldn’t be in conflict with what they were shooting.”
On Spider-Man’s future in the MCU
“I just try to focus on one movie at a time – I try not get ahead of myself in that way, but I do feel that having Spider-Man in the Marvel universe now really opens up the door to a lot of crazy possibilities. Just the fact that Spider-Man is in the same universe as the Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty cool. I feel like we could go so many places – just gotta finish this one first.”
Spider-Man: Homecoming already has a sequel slated for 2019, but recent comments from Homecoming’s Sony producer Amy Pascal (“You don’t have studios deciding to work together to make a film very often. In fact, it may never happen again, after we do the sequel.”) have left fans uncertain about the long-term plans for Sony and Marvel’s joint custody of the character. Watts isn’t quite so worried: “I don’t think she meant that in like an apocalyptic way – I think that she was just trying to say what an unprecedented deal it was, that Marvel and Sony had teamed up, and that it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I think that’s more what she was trying to say, as opposed to putting a ticking clock on it.”
On the Vulture as his choice of villain
“Something about him really clicked and felt classic, and felt like the right way to jump back into the Marvel Universe.” Watts, who drew his inspiration from some of the earliest Spider-Man comics, picked the Vulture as his villain partially because he’s the very first supervillain Peter Parker ever faces on the page. There’s a continued element in Spider-Man: Homecoming of Spider-Man’s current hero position as extremely entry level, something that, in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this choice of villain – a technologically enhanced criminal who’s portrayed by Michael Keaton – helps to emphasize. “There’s an idea that Spider-Man’s like a ground level superhero – we can make a ground level supervillain. That makes sense for The Vulture, becoming this guy who scavenges and picks over crazy fights, battles of previous films – he’s able to salvage all this old technology and build his own arsenal.”
On the Easter Eggs and surprises in store
“No, I don’t want to say anything about any of that stuff!” This was Watts’ response when asked about the curious speculation surrounding Spider-Man fan-favorite Donald Glover’s appearance in Homecoming, and whether it could relate to the character of Miles Morales, the Spider-Man of Marvel’s Ultimates, who’s now migrated to the main 616 universe alongside Peter Parker in the comics. In the most recent trailer, Glover’s character tells Peter “You’ve gotta get better at this part of the job.” Could that imply another, more world-weary Spider-Man? Is this Miles? Watts played very coy: “I want people to go see the movie. I want to keep some surprises up my sleeve.” So there are surprises to be expected? “There are definitely surprises in the movie.”
Another aspect of Spider-Man: Homecoming we can’t wait to discover is what we’ll see after the end. Is this still too early to ask about after-credits scenes, one fan boldly asked? “It wouldn’t be a Marvel property without some great after credits scenes. I don’t want to give them away, but we’ve got some – and they’re worth waiting for.” We’re completely clueless at this point about whether the Spider-Man post-credits scene will, like Ant-Man’s Steve and Bucky tease, involve actual footage from an upcoming release (next up – Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War) or whether it will be an extra scene pertaining to the movie we’ve just witnessed. Maybe both! Either way, we’ll find out soon!
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