The Marvel Cinematic Universe's fanbase's expectations were at an all-time high this week in anticipation of the release of the first teaser trailer for Avengers: Infinity War. Likely surprising no one, the trailer was appropriately epic, offering a solid taste of the scale of the movie, with Thanos in action, and some (but not all) of our favorite superheroes back in the thick of it all.
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In addition to Iron Man, Captain America and Black Panther, we see a great deal of Spider-Man in action, as the teenaged superhero finally debuts his Iron Spider armor. But before Peter suits up, we see him riding a school bus, minding his own business on what's more than likely a regular day in Queens, before everything goes to hell on Earth when a giant alien craft manifests over the New York City skyline. But before Peter even sees the threat, he feels it. Looking down at his arm, we see the hair raising on his skin, and instantly, he knows where to look -- he knows that danger is just around the corner.
This is our first look at Tom Holland exhibiting Peter Parker's famed Spider-Sense -- his ability to detect danger moments before it presents itself. While this is a superpower that has long been recognized and associated with the Wall-Crawler, the MCU's Spider-Man hasn't been seen exhibiting it until now. The ability was completely omitted from Spidey's first solo movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, with the movie's director, Jon Watts, explaining, “I feel like we have seen a lot of Spider-Sense in the previous films, so we didn’t really lean into that as hard as they have in the previous films. But I do think it is a really interesting thing to explore.”
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Watts didn't say that Peter didn't have this superpower, just that it wasn't featured prominently in his film. Some fans have theorized that Spider-Man exhibited his Spider-Sense in the airport battle sequence in Captain America: Civil War, when Peter yelled, "Oh, God," when a truck was hurled at him from behind. He moved away in time, and the truck missed him. But still, it was never made explicitly clear.
Until now, none of Spider-Man's appearance in the MCU have shown beyond a doubt that this was a power this incarnation of the hero possessed. Shorty before the release of Homecoming, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed that he did believe that the Spider-Sense was in Peter Parker's arsenal, and that they would have to find a new and different way to bring it to life on screen. "I mean, that was sort of a big showy part of previous versions," Feige said, "and we thought that we’d make it more of an internal, sort of second nature thing for him."
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It might have taken three appearances in the MCU before we got there but, thanks to the Avengers: Infinity War trailer, we now have unequivocal proof that Peter has his Spider-Sense. The hair raising on his arms is a clear indication of him sensing danger while being a more subtle and grounded way of displaying something that before was signified through bright lights and sharp sounds. It's a clear representation that this is a second nature to him.
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Benedict Wong, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie. The film opens May 4, 2018.