The trailers and interviews have all been pointing to a brand new take on the web-slinging hero and these new words from director Marc Webb confirm that he has no qualms about changing things to suit his Amazing Spider-Man.
As comic and movie fans will remember, one of Peter Parker’s first tests of strength takes place in a semi-professional wrestling ring. Although many fans probably weren’t expecting to see Garfield get into the ring with Bonesaw (or some other similarly named wrestler) in this incarnation, there are no doubt some fans that feel that this step is crucial in his evolution.
Read what Webb has to say below courtesy of MTV (via CBM)
“I wanted to give the audience something new, so that started off with getting underneath the parents’ story, which will unfold over probably a few movies,” Webb told MTV News during a recent interview. “We don’t totally wrap up that story in this first movie. It’s sort of an ongoing mystery. That was something that was interesting to me.”
The story of Peter’s parents isn’t the only curveball being thrown at Spider-fans, either. Webb acknowledged that there are “obligations to the canon, in terms of Uncle Ben and the spider-bite, but the conditions under which those things happen are very different” in his movie.
“This is probably a reveal,” he said, “but there is no wrestling match in this movie. The character is evolving in a different way. It’s about finding a balance between iconic elements of the ‘Spider-Man’ mythology—like how Uncle Ben’s death transforms him emotionally—but it happens in a different way.”
As for the radioactive spider that gave Peter his powers? “He’s bitten by a spider,” Webb confirmed, “but maybe it’s not a radioactive spider. Or maybe it is! You’ll have to see.”
No wrestling match is something we can live with. We weren’t expecting a beat-by-beat remake of Sam Raimi’s film anyway. We do however imagine that he’s joking about the spider not being radioactive – we saw the spider in the laboratory biting Peter in the very first trailer.
What do you think? Should we expect any gigantic departures from the source material?