‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Character Details Revealed At San Diego Comic-Con
Marvel Studios held a pretty successful panel at this year’s San Deigo Comic Con in Hall H. Along with debuting a new trailer for Doctor Strange, revealing more cast information on Black Panther and Brie Larson being confirmed as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel — their golden boy, Spider-Man, received plenty of love, as well.
Spider-Man: Homecoming officially began production earlier this summer, and there have been several additional casting announcements made while filming. Recent additions to the cast include Bokeem Woodbine, Donald Glover, Abraham Attah, and Hannibal Buress. But Peter Parker/Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland, along with Zendaya, Tony Revolori, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, and director Jon Watts arrived at Hall H to spill some cool exclusives.
Michael Keaton was speculated to be Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s villain when he was first cast, specifically the Vulture. According to some concept art that was released on Saturday, some think that Keaton will indeed be playing Vulture, though this apparently was not officially confirmed at Comic-Con.
Spider-Man surprises #SDCC! Here's the first look of the Concept Art featuring the Vulture in #SpiderManHomecoming pic.twitter.com/RDVEVsDHQa
— Spider-Man: No Way Home (@SpiderManMovie) July 24, 2016
Speaking with Cinemablend‘s Sean O’Connell, Tom Holland gave his perspective on why we are now finally going to see the Vulture in a Spider-Man movie.
“Because we haven’t seen him yet,” the young actor said. “We get a little glimpse of him in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, that little glimpse in the Oscorp vault. Which would have been super dope. But the fact that we are doing it first in this movie is going to be really exciting because we can take him to new places that we haven’t taken a Marvel villain to before. And it’s going to be really cool.”
Entertainment Weekly caught up with the cast and director of Spider-Man: Homecoming after their panel, and Watts commented on the villain and why he is in the movie.
“Vulture’s the first real villain in the Spider-Man comics. He’s in the second issue. He’s one of the classics from the best rogues’ gallery out there, and we’ve never seen him, he’s never been brought to life.”
The cast also confirmed their character names during the interview. Watts revealed that Zendaya is playing Michelle, Harrier plays Liz, Jacob Batalon plays Ned, and Revolori is playing Peter’s bully, Flash Thompson.
Liz is most likely Liz Allan from the comics, who dated Flash in high school but also was a minor love interest for Peter. Ned could be Edward “Ned” Leeds, who worked alongside Peter as a reporter for the Daily Bugle, and Ned appears to be Peter’s friend in the movie.
Deadline originality speculated that Zendaya would be playing a character named Michelle, and the only Michelle in the Spider-Man comics is Michele Gonzales.
Zendaya casted in #SpiderMan… People assume MJ or Gwen but it says shes playing "Michele"… could be Gonzales pic.twitter.com/I7V1jVIc7V
— ? Curiousjoi ? Live: Resident Evil 4 Remake ? (@curiousjoi) March 7, 2016
Gonzales was Peter’s roommate in college, and the two would occasionally hook up. It’s possible that the movie could just be adapting a younger version of this character, maybe feeling that the classic love interests (Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson) have already been done and it’s time to try something new.
They’ve only been filming the movie for 10 days, but they were able to reveal some footage of what they have shot. None of this footage has or will leak online, but many who saw it describe it as “a day in the life” of Peter Parker in high school. At the very end of the clip, the Vulture is revealed, barreling down towards the camera, but his identity was not revealed.
Speaking of Spider-Man villains, Heroic Hollywood reports that two additional Homecoming villains may have been given away thanks to a panelist at the Diamond Select Toys panel. A bunch of figures are being created based on the movie, and two of them include the Tinkerer and the Shocker.
Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into theaters July 7, 2017. The film stars Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Tyne Daly, Bokeem Woodbine, Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man.
[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney]
