Captain America: Civil War Directors Wanted Spider-Man To Wear A Red-And-Black Suit

The bosses at Marvel Studios are clearly big fans of Anthony and Joe Russo, entrusting the pair with pivotal, high-stakes projects like Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming Avengers 4. Nonetheless, it seems that these sibling directors don’t always get what they want, with Marvel Studios’ Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding recalling how Spider-Man’s MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War could’ve played out a little differently if the Russos had their way.

In the new artbook Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War – The Art of the Movie, Meinerding discusses the Iron Spider costume exhibited by Peter in the Russo Brothers’ last film, explaining how he incorporated elements from a design that the directors had wanted for their previous movie:

“Using the Iron Spider as reference from the comics, I was just trying to work in themes that I knew the Russo brothers would respond to. I know they had always wanted a red-and-black Spider-Man suit in Civil War, so I was trying to find a way to turn the Iron Spider from the comics into that.”

Regardless of how Spidey’s Civil War costume turned out, the Russos’ work on that ensemble pic impressed their superiors enough to let them try their hand at managing an even bigger cast with Infinity War, by which point, Peter’s outfit was in need of another update.

While the new book exhibits a diverse range of designs for the web-slinger’s nanotech suit, Meinerding ultimately settled on the red, black and gold version that we see in the final cut, explaining his inspiration as follow:

“The Iron Spider in the comics has gold, bulbous eyes, and I felt like I really wanted to hold on to the [John] Romita eyes that we established in the previous suit design. So taking that red-and-black theme, incorporating some gold and then trying to keep the same head design — specifically the eyes — was kind of why we landed where we did.”

Though costume changes are a tradition for many heroes in the MCU, the web-slinger in particular has a reputation for switching up his style on a regular basis, and sure enough, set pics from next year’s Spider-Man: Far From Home see Tom Holland rocking a red-and-black outfit that may not be too far from what the Russo Brothers had in mind for Captain America: Civil War. We’ll see this suit in action when the film hits theaters on July 5th, 2019, but first, we’ll be finding out how Peter gets un-dusted when Avengers 4 comes out on May 3rd.