Find out everything Marvel had planned for Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Recently the blockbuster news hit that Sony pulled the plug on the Marvel deal for Spider-Man.
Update: Sony and Marvel reached a deal for one more movie. So some of these plot threads can get wrapped up.
Spider-Man is wholly owned by Marvel Comics. But back in the 1990s, they sold the live-action television and movie rights to produce live-action versions of the character and all related characters. It’s confusing but our chart helps a little.
In 2016 Marvel revealed they worked out a deal where Sony would allow them to use certain characters in exchange for the profits. It allowed Spider-Man to cameo in one movie, two Avengers movies, and two solo movies.
Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, first appeared in Captain America: Civil War. He quickly became a fan favorite and his awkward performance won over fans who expressed reservations about yet another reboot of the character. But when Marvel went to renegotiate the third solo movie talks broke down over money and producer credits. Now Spider-Man is back out of the MCU. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige downplayed the news. “I’m feeling about Spider-Man gratitude and joy,” he told E.W. “We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers. It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we’d be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I’ll always be thankful for that.”
But is that true? Did they really “tell the story they wanted to tell”? Did they finish the story of Spider-Man in the MCU? Not by a long shot and here’s everything that Marvel was planning to do with Peter Parker.
1. Trilogy
While Marvel has been secretive about their plans for the follow-up to Spider-Man: Far From Home but Tom Holland confirmed they were planning for a third film. He accidentally let it slip out while doing an interview back in 2017. “There is still a lot of room for Peter Parker and Spider-Man especially to grow in the next two movies,” he told AlloCine. “He’s definitely not the finished article by the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming and I really look forward to exploring the different ways he can grow up and go through puberty I guess. It’s going to be an exciting couple of movies… Yeah, there’ll be Spider-Man 2 and 3, it won’t be Homecoming 2 and 3.”
We know he was under contract with Sony to make three solo movies and the actor was interested in doing more. Holland was hoping to make Spider-Man movies for many, many years. “It feels pretty good,” he told Screen Rant. “It’s an amazing experience as an actor and such a privileged experience as an actor to get to play characters that you love so much. Time and time again. Um, I definitely have the mindset of, if you want to make 20 of these movies, then I’m down because it’s really fun. It’s, it’s been a real privilege and so much fun. Maybe even more fun this time around than the last one. It’s been great.”
2. The Release Date
While Marvel never confirmed the release date of Spider-Man 3 there’s a lot of information that points to a 2022 release. Spider-Man’s first appearance is in Captain America: Civil War in May of 2016. Spider-Man: Homecoming opened in July of 2017 the next year.
Most Marvel sequels get a two or three-year turnaround. Iron Man was released in 2008 and the sequels happened in 2010 and 2013. The first Captain America dropped in 2011 and the sequels followed in 2014 and 2016. Ant-Man was released in 2016 and the follow-up released in 2018.
Avengers: Endgame’s April 2019 appearance marked Spider-Man’s last appearance before a solo movie in July of that year. Every solo movie has been in July and preceded by a tentpole appearance. There’s currently an untitled Marvel movie date of July 29, 2022. Chances are it was the planned date for the Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel.
Update: The sequel is scheduled for July 16, 2021. So I was right about the month, but not the year.
3. No Secret Identity
Most superheroes in the Marvel comics have secret identities, but the movies are different. “I think one of the most interesting things about Peter Parker for us is that he’s the only person in the MCU now that has a secret identity, so we all know who everyone else is,” Tom Holland told SuperheroHype. “I think it’s quite interesting to go back to that hiding behind a mask.”
A post-credits scene showed J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) headlining a web news media outlet named “The Daily Bugle”. In it, he calls Spider-Man the real menace and plays a doctored video by Quentin Beck. The video appears to show Peter is behind the attacks and reveals his real name is Peter Parker.
In the comics, Spider-Man’s secret identity is a closely guarded secret. A few villains and heroes learned his alter ego, but most of the general public have no idea who Spider-man is. That changed quite a few times. The first time was in 1964s Amazing Spider-Man #12 when Doctor Octopus pulled off Peter’s mask when he was sick with the flu. A few people saw him but chalked it up to a clever fake.
But the biggest reveal was in Civil War #2 (2006) when the Superhuman Registration Act had the heroes lining up for or against the U.S. governments plan to register superheroes and hold them accountable. Tony Stark, the pro-SRA leader convinced Peter to reveal his identity in a press conference. Spider-Man later had the public forget about his true identity in 2007’s “One More Day” by trading his marriage to Mary Jane. But in the movies, it’s been a little more fluid.
Starting with the first Spider-Man several super-villains learn Spider-Man’s secret and terrorize his friends and family. But it’s only in Spider-Man: Far From Home that it’s revealed by J. Jonah Jameson to the world. This is a big change for him but means nothing for the other heroes. Starting in 2008 none of the superheroes have secret identities.
The biggest difference is that unlike Iron Man or Thor, Peter’s a lot more vulnerable. He’s not a billionaire or a god. He’s just a high school kid living with his Aunt. The first guy that found out his identity pulled a gun on him. This is a big deal for Spider-Man and could have caused him a ton of problems.
4. Senior Year
The first Spider-Man movie followed Peter as a 15-year-old sophomore. In Spider-Man: Far From Home it’s Peter’s junior year. The third movie was going to be set in Peter’s senior year.
When Spider-Man was first announced Kevin Feige confiemed he wanted Peter to stay in high school. “We want to play with Spider-Man in the high school years because frankly there’ve been five Spider-Man films and the amazing thing about it is, even though there’ve been five Spider-Man films, there are so many things from the comics that haven’t been done yet,” he told Collider. “Not just characters or villains or supporting characters, but sides to his character. The most obvious being the ‘young, doesn’t quite fit in’ kid before his powers, and then the fella that puts on a mask and swings around and fights bad guys and doesn’t shut up, which is something we want to play with and we’re excited about.”
Tom Holland told Screen Rant that the plan was to have him graduating in the last film. “No, I’m sure that is the formula they’re going to take,” he said. “And yeah I see him graduating towards the last movie.”
Presumably, he would graduate and get a job. Where you might ask?
5. The Daily Bugle
The post-credits scene reveals The DailyBugle.net, which is a provocative news site exists in the MCU. In the comics, Peter Parker is a photographer for a newspaper called “The Daily Bugle”. This was emulated in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies. In the Adam Garfield films, he never worked at the paper, but there was a sly cameo for the Daily Bugle in an email.
Marvel had considered introducing the news outlet in Homecoming but decided against it. “We toyed with it for a while, but again, we didn’t want to go down that road right away, and if we do do a Daily Bugle, we want to do it in a way that feels contemporary,” Co-Producer Eric Hauserman Carroll told Slashfilm. “Working in a newspaper while fighting crime and overachieving, it just felt like one of those things where like… maybe it’s in his future? Maybe it’s what he does in college or something like that. But for now, no.”
The MCU version of the Daily Bugle emulates the one in The Ultimate Spider-Man animated series has Jameson as a television personality complaining about Spider-Man as a “menace”. Not coincidently he’s voiced by Simmons.
Bringing in Jameson at the end of the second sequel was clearly intended to set-up Peter’s involvement in the future. Of course, considering how much Jameson hates Spider-Man it’s hard to imagine him working with him. So, presumably, they would have to deal with that or skip having him work at “The Daily Bugle”.
6. Happy Hogan’s Romance
In Far From Home, they confirmed that Harold “Happy” Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) are dating…or something. There’s disagreement between them about what exactly they’re doing but it’s clear they have feelings for each other. While Endgame confirmed that his boss Tony had married Pepper Potts it would have been great to see Happy with a romance of his own.
Presumably, this was going to advance in the upcoming movies and could have led to a marriage in the future. Either way, it’s gone now.
While at D23 Favreau confirmed that storyline ends with Spider-Man’s leaving the MCU. “Man, you know, just when you thought Happy Hogan was going to be in a happy relationship,” he told Rotten Tomatoes. “There’s always twist and turns, right? There’s adventure on the screen and there’s also there’s a story off the screen. So I hope as a fan and as somebody who has been involved with both the MCU films and also with the Spider-Man movies, I had fun collaborating with all those people together. I think I speak for everybody that I’d love to see, I hope this isn’t the last chapter and I hope there are new developments in the area. Because I would love to see all those characters continue to occupy the same world.”
7. The Sinister Six
The supervillain team known as “The Sinister Six” first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus contacts every Spider-Man villain and Electro, Kraven the Hunter, the original Mysterio, Sandman, and Vulture respond. The team reforms several times over the years with different team members.
The first Spider-Man movie introduced Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture played by Michael Keaton. Tellingly he’s one of the few Marvel villains to survive the film. They also introduced Michael Mando as Mac Gargan who becomes Scorpion in the comics. This especially telling after introducing Jameson in Far From Home since the original Scorpion was mutated with his backing in his attempt to kill the wall-crawler.
Homecoming also added Sinister Six member Herman Schultz / Shocker played by Bokeem Woodbine. Not to mention Aaron Davis / Prowler played by Donald Glover who’s also a member of the Sinister Six in the Ultimate comics.
Far From Home introduced original Sinister Six team member Quentin Beck / Mysterio played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Of course, he appears to die at the end of the movie, but it’s possible that he survived.
So they’ve set up several Sinister Six members in the MCU. Including the unusual step of leaving most of them alive. This can’t be a coincidence. They’ve featured five members of the team with only one to go. It’s not a stretch to think Marvel planned to have Spider-Man face off against the team. Especially since the rumor is Sinister Six member Sergei Kravinoff aka “Kraven the Hunter” was supposed to appear in Black Panther 2.
8. Tony Stark’s Legacy
When Robert Downey Jr. left the MCU he left a hole. Stark was not only an integral part of the team, but he was also the technical genius behind most of the tech the Avengers use. Without him who would create all the gadgets and equipment, they rely on?
Enter Spider-Man. While Parker obviously isn’t the same genius that Stark is he certainly has skills. After all, he created his own webbing and web-shooters on his own with nothing but high school lab equipment. Plus, in Far From Home, they have a montage of him using Stark’s tech to design and build a new suit.
At one point people even ask Spider-Man if he’s “the next Iron Man”. Stark also sends Peter the E.D.I.T.H. which gives him access to the entire Stark Industries network. We don’t know for sure but it appears that the plan was for Peter to inherit the legacy of Tony Stark. That idea is now dead along with Spider-Man so who knows where the mantle of Stark will fall. Maybe Shuri?
None of this will happen unless Sony works out a deal with Marvel, but they were all clearly in the cards. Marvel may never get the rights to Spider-Man back but it’s clear they had big plans for him. Sony’s chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra says “For the moment the door is closed” but Marvel may be able to renegotiate the rights to use Peter in the MCU again. Until then, we can only hope and dream of the possibilities.
Update: The deal is done.
What do you think Marvel had planned for Spider-Man? Is there anything you were looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!
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