Spider-Man: Homecoming Deleted Scene Details The Winter Soldier Aftermath

For as much fun as it is to visit on screen, the Earth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems like a horrifying place to live. It's a place facing constant, seemingly escalating threats from other worlds, and its only defenders appear to be well-funded, unstable, bickering maniacs who have no qualms about using your backyard as a backdrop for a superpowered grudge match. It's a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to stay.

A deleted scene from Spider-Man: Homecoming shows just how messy the MCU can be for regular people, detailing the damage done to Washington, D.C. during the climactic final battle of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Arriving at the nation's capital via school bus for their big academic decathlon event, the scene shows Peter, Ned, and Michelle reacting to the sight of a wrecked helicarrier still collapsed into the side of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters at the Triskelion building. Michelle makes mention of Damage Control, the Stark Industries endeavor tasked with cleaning up the Avengers' messes, before dropping some conspiratorial ideas into the conversation about what they want you to think about Captain America.

While the scene does the essential groundwork of making Homecoming feel like a living corner of the MCU, there's a number of reasons why the scene was probably cut from the final picture. For one, there's timing—as in, isn't it odd that the events of both Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War have taken place by the time of Homecoming, and there's still a 30-story tall helicarrier just leaning into the side of a building in the middle of Washington, D.C.?

The scene also puts a weird amount of emphasis on Captain America, who gets referenced quite a bit in the movie despite never showing up in person. It might have been one reference too many, making people think Captain America and whatever he was up to would be more important to the plot of Homecoming than he actually was. 

Additionally, perhaps as a consequence of unfinished effects work, the green screen effect for the scene looks more than a little wonky. Still, the intention of the scene is clear—the MCU is a dangerous place, as the kids would soon find out for themselves when their field trip takes a turn towards disaster. Luckily for them, Spider-Man was in town.

We'll get our next look at the webslinger in action as part of a major ensemble when Avengers: Infinity War hits home on April 25, 2018. For now, check out the deleted Homecoming scene below.