Spider-Man: Homecoming represents a unique moment in the 14-movie saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in that the project is a partnership between Marvel Studios and Sony (which still holds the Spider-Man movie rights). Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige insisted that Marvel be allowed to make key creative decisions on Homecomingsuggesting that this film is very much a creation of the MCU.

That's made starkly clear in new comments from the cast and crew of Spider-Man: Homecoming, showing just how deeply the villains of the movie are tied to the wreckage left in the wake of the previous MCU installments.

USA Today has an extensive look into the mindset of supervillain Vulture, played by Birdman star Michael Keaton. He's described as an "everyman", blue-collar worker running a salvage company that cleans up the destruction after superhero battles. In the MCU, “Being a supervillain isn’t necessarily your full-time job," explains director John Watts, who was discussing his inspiration for villain Adrian Toomes, a.k.a Vulture:

“My whole approach for this movie is that we’ve seen the penthouse level of the (Marvel) universe. We’ve seen what it’s like to be a billionaire inventor and to be a Norse god. We’ve seen the very top of this world. But we’ve never seen what it’s like to be just a regular joe.”

According to co-producer Eirc Hauserman Carroll, this regular joe "has a bone to pick" with none other than Tony Stark after a new government organization founded by Robert Downey Jr.'s character takes over his work. Toomes "sort of becomes the dark Tony Stark," with Bokeem Woodbine's Shocker and Michael Chernus's Tinkerer on his side. They salvage alien artifacts and advanced technology to put together and sell incredible weaponry. This allows John Watts to use the "neat junk from all the other movies," giving Homecoming a unique way to bind itself to the MCU:

"It’s a really great starting point for the villains to have the Vulture picking over the stuff and finding the valuable exotic elements and having the Tinkerer assemble into something that could be used.”

You can check out a new image of Vulture from Homecoming (via USA Today), below:

Marvel's villains have never been short of interesting visuals and impressive ways to wreak havoc, but they have fallen into familiar pitfalls of spectacle over substance. Carroll was sure to expand on what drives Vulture, explaining that: "He thinks once he has this money and power, he'll have more control of his life." Michael Keaton weighed-in on this depiction of a flawed villain, saying:

“Some people see themselves as victims — he sees himself a little bit like that. He probably would have a strong argument that he never got a fair shot — a lot of ‘Why not me? Where’s mine?’”

John Watts went on to claim that the ground-level pespective of John C. Reilly's supporting character in Guardians of the Galaxy inspired his Marvel movie villain:

“I like the idea that in these huge movies, you pick out one extra and you’re like, ‘What does he think of all this?' Sometimes these movies are so casual about just destroying whole cities and incredible things happen and everyone’s like, ‘Eh, whatever.’ If that really happened, it would be amazing and change everything.”

The next Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer is due to drop tomorrow. We'll keep you updated with any further news.

Source: USA Today

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