Captain America Civil War: Joe Russo explains why Iron Man recruits Spider-Man

Captain America: Civil War co-director Joe Russo said Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) recruits Spider-Man (Tom Holland) to his side to help him fight Team Captain America because Tony Stark believes the webslinger is "the greatest living non-lethal weapon". Elaborating further, Russo said as the fight is between friends, Iron Man does want to control his punches.

Spider-Man made his first appearance in Captain America: Civil War's second trailer, where fans got to learn that the webslinger is on the Iron Man's side. A teaser released just two days ago gave fans a glimpse of Spidey's funny side and his super strength in a fight with Bucky, played by Sebastian Stan.

"Look, there's a certain narcissism to the character and Tony doesn't want to lose this fight, and at the same time I think he also sees Spider-Man as the greatest living non-lethal weapon," Russo said, according to Screen Rant.

"If you're going out to capture a bunch of people who you don't necessarily want to hurt, you couldn't ask for a better character than Spider-Man to take with you.

"He does show up and illustrate that Spider-Man, he knows how powerful he is. In a video we see Spider-Man stopping a car moving 40 miles an hour, where he catches it and puts it back on the ground, so I think he believes that he's taking with him perhaps one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe, and I think he feels like the kid will be well protected under his tutelage," he added.

"You also find out in that sequence when things go wrong the kid says, 'What do I do?' and Tony says, 'Keep your distance, web 'em up.' So he's obviously mentored the kid for what's about to go down."

In the third Captain America movie, the Avengers will be divided into Team Captain America and Team Iron Man over the government's decision to take control of the superheroes.

The cast includes Chris Evans as Steve Rogers aka Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Sebastian Stan is Bucky and Frank Grillo as Crossbone, among others.

Captain America: Civil War opens in theatres in the US on 6 May.