Car companies have been known to use block buster films to try and catapult sales of their existing model line up and future models. In fact, movies have played such a big role in our perception of car companies that most of us relate different cars with different films and film characters. We associate Aston Martin cars with James Bond films, Range Rovers with villainous characters and the Chevrolet Camaro with the Transformers franchise.

Often film makers highlight traits in the various cars used to complement their films but also to advertise different features in the cars used. Some car companies have even gone as far as developing their own films to showcase their cars. BMW’s film division’s The Escape is a good case in point. A certain Dakota Fanning and Clive Owen star as the main actors and South African director Neil Blomkamp of District 9 fame directed the short.

Audi isn’t foreign to this craft and in fact the Transporter Film franchise starring Jason Statham has an Audi in the main role. Interestingly, the transporter films were inspired by BMW’s short film series The Hire. However, these films opened up Audi to a wider audience and as a child this was my introduction to Audi. In 2004’s hit movie I-Robot leading man Will Smith’s character drives what is a thinly veiled concept of the Audi R8 before it went into production.

2008’s block buster film Iron Man spread Audi’s reach further than ever before with Robert Downey Jr’s. character Tony Stark driving an Audi R8. This has now become a staple of the Iron Man franchise and Tony Stark is inextricably linked to the R8 in the same way James Bond is linked to Aston Martin cars. Audi has used this to their advantage by featuring some of their other cars in the film series. 2013’s Iron Man 3 featured use of an Audi S7 as a grand tourer ferrying Tony Stark across the United States.

Keeping in-step with this tradition Audi will use Marvel’s latest film Spider Man: Homecoming to showcase the new Audi A8. The new R8 Spyder V10 Plus will also be featured in the movie along with the Audi TTS Roadster driven by Tony Stark and Peter Parker respectively. Audi hopes to create interest and generate hype in the new A8 as it is the long awaited replacement to the current generation car which has been in production since 2009. Mercedes and BMW have already served up replacements to their flagships with the new BMW 7 Series and the recently face-lifted S-Class.

Spider Man: Homecoming will premiere in Los Angeles on the 28th of this month and will be in theaters worldwide in July.