Dear Marvel: Don't turn Spider-Man: Homecoming into Iron Man 4 please
The new trailer for Spider-Man 6......I mean Spider-Man: Homecoming is out. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a look here:
It's solid. Not one of Marvel Studios' best trailers, but it definitely has a youthful fun vibe to it like Ant-Man did last year.
In fact, if there was only one thing about the trailer that absolutely concerned the hell out of me with the movie, it's this one simple thing:
Too......much......Tony......Stark.
Just to be upfront here, I am a Robert Downey Jr. fan. His casting as Iron Man has been spot on and he has been one of the most important poster boys for the Marvel Cinematic Universe since it started eight years ago.
That being said, he doesn't need to be present in every other MCU movie and if you think that's an exaggeration, consider that of the 14 current MCU movies in existence, Tony Stark is literally in half of them and only one of those, The Incredible Hulk, is a true cameo appearance. The other six MCU movies he is in, he is a critical part of the plot and storyline. Obviously that's important for the three Iron Man movies and the two Avengers films, but in his last appearance, Captain America: Civil War, his presence all but made that movie another Avengers film instead of a Captain America film like it really should have been. Yes it was a huge ensemble cast as well, but Stark stole the show several times over the course of two and a half hours and effectively hijacked the entire plot with an incredible direct connection between him and Bucky Barnes at the end.
Now it looks like Tony's going to be all over Peter Parker's new territory, both as the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist and the suited-up Avenger, as we see him fly off at the end of the trailer with Spider-Man.
I'm the first person to say that movies cannot be completely judged by the trailer, especially the first teaser trailer released and that's not what I'm doing here. Like I said, it's a solid trailer and the movie is certain to be box office gold just from the excited Spider-Man fans alone that couldn't care less about this being the character's second reboot in five years. That being said, I'm urging Marvel Studios not to feature Tony Stark as heavily in this movie as they did in Civil War because Peter Parker doesn't need anyone else to help him shine, even at high school age. He is a strong enough and deep enough character to carry a movie on his own, as we have seen several times in the past 14 years alone.
Now I'm sure the first defender of Tony Stark being in this movie will immediately point out that he was the one that brought in Spider-Man in Civil War and with the modifications and help that we already know Stark has been giving Parker, it makes more than enough sense for Stark to be featured prominently in Homecoming. I get that, but you can't let him take over the movie at any point and if you give Robert Downey Jr. enough scenes in the film, he's going to do exactly that even if he doesn't mean to. He has overshadowed Captain America and the rest of the Avengers at least three times now on screen. Imagine what he would do with just 30 minutes in what should be a Tom Holland-focused journey for two hours.
I realize I'm getting ahead of myself and we are eight months away from the release of the movie where so much could change between now and then. It's just a legitimate concern after what happened with Civil War last May. After two solid to strong Captain America movies with Chris Evans leading the way as Steve Rogers, he got usurped by "Shellhead" in the third one for almost half of the runtime. I just don't want to see the same thing happen to Spider-Man here. I'm not against Tony Stark being in the movie, I just hope that what we saw in the trailer is not indicative of him having a huge role in the whole movie. At the end of the day, it is still Spider-Man: Homecoming and the focus should be on Peter Parker, not Tony Stark.
I'm sure Marvel Studios will opt to do what is best for the future of its franchise......which, who am I kidding, means they'll gladly turn it into Iron Man 4 if it means a billion dollars at the box office. And I'll be part of that billion either way. Disappointed, but still a part of it.