Thank you to Sony and Marvel for hosting me on my visit to the set.
Last year I visited the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and I’ve been impatiently waiting to share details ever since! During our visit, we saw several pretty epic sets (more on that later) and the filming of a scene from the movie.
About 30 seconds into the official trailer you can catch a bit of what was being filmed during our visit. Fun fact: that same scene was also used as Jacob Batalon’s audition scene.
In the trailer you see Jacob, who plays Ned Leeds, dropping a Lego Death Star. There’s a funny story about that Death Star. Before filming, Jacob and Tom were given the Legos to help them bond. “We were building the Death Star, and we got really close. We got to about-maybe the last third-and props were like, ‘Oh, we need the Death Star.’ I wasn’t aware I worked for the props department,” says Tom Holland. There’s also a Lego Millennium Falcon on the set that Jacob wanted to claim after filming.
Those bonding efforts clearly paid off. At one point Jacob went to visit Tom at his home while filming and ended up moving in. Their real life friendship is evident when they argue about potential real-life super powers. Jacob wants to fly. Tom wants to teleport. “But if you can fly, you can enjoy the sky, the scenery,” says Jacob.
“You can still fly if you can teleport. You just teleport really high,” interrupts Tom.
“If you’re there in an instant you don’t see all the distance you’re traveled.”
“Yeah, you do.”
Then they both conceded that they could argue the physics of teleportation versus flight for at least an hour and we probably had a few more questions we’d like to ask.
The suit that comes along with being Spider-Man has it’s good points and it’s…not so good points. “It was one of the most amazing experiences of my whole life, the first time I put it on,” says Tom. “The first week I wouldn’t go to the toilet all day because you just can’t take it off.” They did figure out a way to make the process go a little quicker as filming progressed, although it still took three people to get him out of it. “As much as the suit is uncomfortable, it’s the coolest thing I could ever have asked for.”
It was important for this version of Spider-Man to truly embrace the high school experience and to show Peter and Ned as typical teenagers. (You know, outside of that whole superhero thing.) Tom even went to a Bronx high school for a few days with a fake name and accent to get a look at an American high school experience. (He even captured some video that might show up somewhere down the road from his days undercover.)
When it comes to filming Spider-Man Homecoming, it started as it’s own version of the high school experience. “The first two weeks we were shooting were literally at a high school,” says Ned. “In the beginning it felt like an indie movie…but then [Tom] putting on the suit…that’s when the green screens came in…”
“One of the nice things about the action sequences is that you’re still constantly reminded that it’s a John Hughes [style] movie,” adds Tom. “As soon as I do something really badass, that all goes terribly wrong, and I make a mistake, and I don’t look badass anymore. So this is the coolest and least cool Spider-Man you’re gonna see for a long time.”
They both are still blown away to be in an actual Marvel film. Tom even had arguments years ago with his best friend about who would win in a fight, Batman or Spider-Man. He can debate that point a little more effectively now. “You know how I’d know Spider-Man would win? Because I am Spider-Man.”
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