John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein had a whopping three days to pitch Marvel on their version of Spider-Man Homecoming. The writing duo behind comedies Horrible Bosses and Vacation were tasked by Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and company to conceive a superhero movie that blended action and John Hughesian teen comedy.

“We had our first general meeting with the Marvel guys on a Thursday, and that following Monday we were supposed to go in and pitch not only as writers but directors,” Daley said. “So we were putting together two different pitches in a very short amount of time. And what is pleasantly surprising is that so much of what we pitched on that Monday is still in the movie.”

And of course there are plenty of aspects that changed as the story evolved. From the conceptual phase to various outlines and drafts, here are nine ideas for Homecoming that never saw the light of day.

(Warning: ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ spoilers ahead!)



View photos Michael Keaton in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (Sony) More

1. The original script opened with Peter’s cellphone footage.

Daley and Goldstein said the most dramatic changes made to their story between the original pitch and final product had to do with placing more emphasis on Vulture (Michael Keaton). That included the insertion of the prelude, sets eight years before the action, which introduced Adrian Toomes as a blue-collar disaster cleaner-upper. “What was added was the whole Vulture prelude origin story, which totally makes sense,” Daley said. “It helps you empathize with this villain character, which is always great. I thin our intention was always to keep him not a terrible guy.”

2. Peter was almost a social media influencer.

In updating the plot for the Snapchat generation, the writers’ initial pitch had “Peter has sort of a new version of his Daily Bugle, anonymously [posting] these YouTube videos of him doing various stunts as Spider-Man and also saving the day. And filming it with a GoPro camera and just racking up the money that he gets off the number of views that these videos get,” Goldstein revealed. Added Daley: “But it was also a priority to incorporate the events of Civil War in the beginning in the movie, so we thought we to combine those two ideas.” In the end Peter uses his cellphone to capture the behind-the-scenes action of Civil War‘s big battle scene, which we see during the opening of the movie as noted above.

View photos Marisa Tomei in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (Sony) More

3. Aunt May did react when she walked in on a scantily clad Peter and Ned.

The fact that May (Marisa Tomei) doesn’t bat an eyelash when she bursts through the bedroom door to find her nephew (Peter Parker) in his underwear with another guy (Jacob Batalon) is commendable, a subtle sign of progress. But regardless of whether or not she approves, you think she’d have some reaction to what would appear to be some hanky-panky between the two. And she did in the script. “She said, ‘No judgment,’ or something like that,” Goldstein acknowledged. “I think they just wanted to stay away from any allusions to anything going on. It is a curious thing that she doesn’t register it.”

4. Ned’s one burning inquiry about those webs.

Daley and Goldstein were impressed by the amount of goofy and/or irreverent humor from the script that survived the final cut. They point to the plethora of questions Ned peppers Peter with after discovering his buddy’s true identity. “The only one that we had that they cut was, ‘Do the webs come out of your body?’ And Peter’s like, ‘I’m not a monster!'” Daley recalled. (This of course, was a nod to Sam Raimi’s original trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, where webs did in fact sprout from Peter’s bod.)