Peter Parker out, Sam Wilson in? Turns out that was very nearly the case early on in the development of Avengers: Infinity War.
Similar to how the film’s first draft touched on the fallout from Civil War – and, in particular, how it damaged (irreparably?) the friendship between Steve and Tony – one version of Infinity War‘s monolithic story had Spidey and Falcon swap places so that the latter accompanied Iron Man on his journey into space.
That’s right, instead of hanging around on Earth with Captain America and their newfound allies, Avengers: Infinity War almost launched Sam Wilson into space, where he would’ve assisted in the plan to save Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme from the clutches of the Black Order. But as the film’s co-writer Christopher Markus tells Yahoo Movies, Spidey took his place in order to drive up the emotional stakes.
There was one [version] where Spider-Man did not go to space, and where Falcon went to space. And it was fun, it was interesting, it’s always great to have those guys in various situations and there was a lot to do with them in both situations, but we weren’t getting as much emotion as we could if we brought them back to people who know them.
In hindsight, the decision to swap in Peter Parker at the expense of Falcon was a wise move, as it gave Tom Holland the opportunity to deliver what is perhaps one of Infinity War‘s biggest scenes. Marooned on Titan, here we see the young Spider-Man look up to a tearful Tony Stark, begging that he be spared from the Mad Titan’s genocide.
Word is Tom Holland actually ad-libbed the line, “I don’t wanna go,” which is all the more impressive when you consider that he was only briefed about said scene on the day it was filmed. Though in fairness, Holland did have a tendency to talk about Avengers: Infinity War more than Marvel would’ve liked…