One of the most game-changing moments in the entire MCU so far was Spider-Man’s debut appearance in Captain America: Civil War. The unprecedented deal between Marvel Studios and Sony that allowed the wall-crawler to be introduced into the franchise gave us Tom Holland’s beloved iteration of Peter Parker and gave Spidey the chance to interact with the Avengers on the big screen for the first time.
Just as Spider-Man’s jump to the MCU came as a surprise to fans, though, it was also not expected by the film’s writers, either. Before the Sony deal went through, the original script for Civil War was very different, with another character taking the role of the hero that Iron Man recruits to join his side. While speaking on the Fat Man on Batman podcast with host Kevin Smith, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed that Ant-Man originally took Spidey’s role in the story.
McFeely: [Tony Stark] would recruit somebody else. He probably recruits Ant-Man, I think would be that idea. Well, we had a section where you could recruit somebody, right?
Markus, “[Tony] actually went to San Francisco. It would not have been as cool.
McFeely “I believe [Scott] was watching his daughter play soccer. It wasn’t very good.
That’s quite the change from the part Ant-Man went on to play in the version of Civil War that we got. Due to his previous tussle with Falcon, Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang’s welcomed onto Team Cap, where he’s delighted to work with his childhood hero Captain America against Iron Man’s allies. We’re glad it turned out this way, too, as Hank Pym’s mistrust of Tony Stark was set up in Ant-Man and it would’ve been odd for Scott to side with Stark. That said, it looks like they’ll work together after all in Avengers 4.
What’s more, if Tony didn’t recruit Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War, we wouldn’t have had their surrogate father/son relationship that’s been so enjoyable to see develop over Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War. Of course, it would also mean that Peter might still be alive. Too soon?
