Prior to Captain America: Civil War the future of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was locked away in Sony’s glass cabinet. Thankfully, due to wise business sense, Sony and Marvel worked out a deal to bring the wall-crawler to the MCU to fantastic acclaim. Both collaborations, Homecoming and Far from Home were such huge successes that they brought the superhero to the forefront of the new wave of Marvel properties like Infinity War. Sony too had a Spider-Man venture of their own. 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was an Academy Award-winning animated movie that expanded the possibilities for Spider-Man stories. These two competing spheres of Spider-Man caused a dispute between Sony and Marvel in 2019 that almost tore Tom Holland away from the MCU. Fan outrage, and Tom Holland’s own personal plea, returned the two companies to the table for another wise business decision. Tom Holland will continue as the webslinger in the as-yet-untitled Spider-Man 3.
In addition to monetary trades in the contract, one cannot help but wonder how much influence Sony will have in MCU films involving Spider-Man? Will the two separate Spider-Man spheres overlap? The first tease of this possibility was at the end of Far from Home where J.K. Simmons reprised his role as a new version of J. Jonah Jameson. J.K. Simmons played the character back in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy nearly twenty years ago. Based on leaks and rumors surrounding untitled Spider-Man 3, fans learned that several characters from earlier Spider-Man films are being incorporated into the new movie.
From the “Sam Raimi-verse” additional to Jameson, the new Spider-Man will see Alfred Molina return as Doctor Octopus, and supposedly Tobey Maguire, who played Spider-Man for that film series. From the “Marc Webb-iverse,” 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will offer Jamie Foxx’s Electro and, rumor again, possibly Andrew Garfield as the Spider-man from that run too. Intriguingly, two additional pieces of information support an “MCU Spider-Verse.” Charlie Cox was reportedly spotted on set in Atlanta, Georgia during the filming of untitled Spider-Man 3. Cox played Daredevil for the Marvel Netflix universe.
Finally, Benedict Cumberbatch will play Doctor Strange, his last guest appearance on film before the Multiverse of Madness sequel comes out in 2022. Could it be that much like Into the Spider-Verse, untitled Spider-Man 3 will introduce fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a conglomeration of Spider-Man properties? Could it be used to justify Sony’s ongoing sphere of in-universe-but-out-of-universe films like Venom, Morbius, the Living Vampire, future Venom 2, and a spin-off to Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Women?
There are three problems that may arise here. The first is that using a single movie to tie into multiple future properties, or to a much grander media franchise, could be too cumbersome to be coherent, if not done carefully. Evidence of this was witnessed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 where Sony shoved in several scenes just to promote future products. The scenes were too contrived for fans to be sensible plot points. The sequel performed so poorly they canceled any plans for future movies – at least, delayed them. Second, having all of these characters in the film might cause the same type of bloat seen in 2007’s Spider-Man 3. That film suffered by the forced inclusion of Venom, on top of New Goblin and Sandman. Third, and possibly worse of all, untitled Spider-Man 3 might tread already-seen ground. Into the Spider-Verse explored the possibility of a multiverse with alternate timelines and different versions of Spider-Man. If Sony wants to hook their Spider-Man universe to that of the MCU’s, using the same successful template as Into the Spider-Verse could be a rehashed formula.
In light of the inclusion of Doctor Strange, the method to which Spider-Man gets involved with the multiverse should be different enough from Into the Spider-Verse. Whereas the animated movie used technology, this one will likely use magic. Also, there is a chance that all these call backs to past Spider-Man movies will amount to nothing more than a ten second kaleidoscope scene for Peter Parker as he gets thrown into some type of vortex or tear in the fabric of the universe. The movie may have nothing to do with any of the Sony movies except as humorous reference. If this is the case, untitled Spider-Man 3 could go in an unexpected direction.
It will also be interesting to see which direction the Sony version of Spider-Man goes. Into the Spider-Verse will get a sequel, as well as the already mentioned spin-off featuring the all-female characters Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman and Silk.
It could just be fan cynicism that looks for the worse in untitled Spider-Man 3, when it’s entirely possible that the sequel will be as awesome as the first two MCU Spider-Man movies. Given the talent involved with the production, this is a near certainty.
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