In just a little over three months, Marvel's famous web-slinger returns to theaters with Spider-Man: Homecoming. While other MCU heroes are out saving the world or even the galaxy, Spidey will continue to deal with threats closer to home. He also has to balance out his superhero life with his civilian one, including his high school responsibilities. Of course, after Peter's (Tom Holland) adventures in Captain America: Civil War, his world will be considerably more packed with superheroics.
Part of that will come in the form of Tony Stark mentoring Peter, something that may change Iron Man moving forward. It will also bring the Wall Crawler into the orbit of next-level foes, like the Vulture, who will serve as a sort of 'dark Tony Stark'. Luckily, Tony will be supplying Peter with more than just wisdom. Thanks to their meeting last summer, the web-slinger now has a spiffy new suit. We got to see a lot of the bells and whistles it features in the second Homecoming trailer, but there's one piece of it that's been a mystery since last year's film.
The tag at the end of Civil War shows Peter playing with his upgraded web shooters, only to have a hologram pop up on the ceiling. During our Homecoming set visit in Atlanta, we were able to speak with producer Eric Carroll and specifically asked him what the deal with the hologram was and whether it was a way for Peter to communicate with Tony (or his right-hand man, Happy Hogan):
"No, no. He just calls him. When he tries to contact him, he calls on his three-year-old cell phone that he has, with a cracked screen and stuff. That is sort of the interface for the web shooters. So even before he deactivates the Training Wheels Protocol, he’s got a really high-tech web shooter. And one of the ideas is that when he does this [movement] he can adjust the spray, and he can even scroll through different web settings, like spinning web, web ball, ricochet web… you know, all of the stuff we can see him do in the comics, Tony has built into this. That was sort of unlocked for him. So when he shines that, it will go [boom noise], and if he wants to shoot just the one swinging web, it will go down really small. And if he wants to web a guy to the wall, it goes [makes noise] and goes like that. It’s kind of like a DSLR camera. He can shoot without it, or he can hold that thing a second, get his aiming right, and really choose a web to shoot."
In the comics, Spidey can do many different things with his web-shooters. In the early days, he would just create the different shapes and styles with little explanation. In recent years, the web shooter bonus features have been explained more as Pete has grown more technologically-savvy and wealthy. Given that he's still a kid, albeit a genius one, it makes sense for him to come up with the standard web-shooter and have Stark provide all the cool extras. While Carroll's explanation is a little vague, it looks like Homecoming will actually show us how Pete makes adjustments to cycle through the different options.
Of course, we know he won't always have these cool new toys. Part of Spidey's arc in the movie will be losing his new suit—and presumably his upgraded web shooters—and having to go back to his homemade costume that he originally wore. This will not only be a humbling experience, but will allow Spidey to prove he's a hero even without the gizmos (well, with less gizmos).
