Why Spider-Man Goes From the Friendly Neighborhood to Actually Becoming An Avenger in ‘Infinity War’

After meeting his idol Tony Stark and fighting against some renegade superheroes, Spider-Man had to adjust his priorities and return to a life of friendly neighborhood crimefighting.

But when Thanos invades in Avengers: Infinity War, the situation requires all hands on deck and Spider-Man becomes a full-fledged member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including a ceremonial “knighting” from Iron Man himself.

That graduation was reflected in the brand new costume he receives, with the Iron Spider design being fitting for a member of the Avengers. Marvel Studios’ Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding spoke about the challenges of designing the new costume and how Peter Parker’s new circumstances played into the final look.

“It was an interesting and fun design challenge, and I think he definitely feels like a different Spider-Man in this movie,” Meinerding said in The Art of Avengers: Infinity War. “It allows him to feel like he’s moving away from being just a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and actually becoming an Avenger–which is a huge story point and one that I was happy to help contribute to.”

Of course, Spider-Man will return to his own adventures in his upcoming sequel, but that doesn’t mean he’s back to the friendly neighborhood.

Marvel’s first movie after Avengers 4 is Spider-Man: Far From Home, which takes the Wall Crawler on a globetrotting adventure in a struggle against the classic villain Mysterio.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige spoke about the importance of this phase in Spider-Man’s life and how it’s reflected in the movie’s title, which has multiple meanings.

“Well, I mean, sure, let the speculation begin. That’s always fun,” Feige said. “We like [the title] of course because it ties into Homecoming, not just keeping that word going, which we like and we liked it more than Homecoming 2, but that notion of ‘home’ is a word that has dual meanings we’d like to continue with this [Marvel Cinematic Universe] version of Spider-Man. So, Far From Home has multiple meanings.”

The film will also serve as a palate cleanser after the events of Avengers 4, which is sure to rock the foundation of the MCU.

“Much like Ant-Man, there are things that people know about that movie, which is a great deal of the movie: the villain of the movie, the storyline of the film, that we’re shooting in Europe and that Peter Parker goes on continuing that [Captain America: Civil War] was a big giant super hero class movie. The fall out of that in Homecoming was John Hughes and him going to his high school. So that’s what’s fun to us about the Spider-Man movies. And again going from Infinity War to Ant-Man and the Wasp, the tonal shift.”

Fans can next see Spider-Man (if he’s resurrected) in Avengers 4, premiering in theaters on May 3.

You can purchase The Art of Avengers: Infinity War by clicking here.