If you haven’t seen Spider-Man: No Way Home, my question for you is, “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!” Firstly, why would you click on a Spider-verse speculation article without having seen the most epic Spider-Man movie of all time? Secondly, close this tab and go see the movie!
Now that we got that out of the way, the internet is buzzing with Spider-Man talk, and rightfully so! Spider-Man: No Way Home: WOW.
However, the question we’re pondering now is what is next for Spider-Man?!
Given the complicated rights issues involving Spider-Man, we know that Sony and Disney have been trying to figure out how to play nice with this golden goose that is the Tom Holland and Jon Watts Spider-Man offerings. But if you aren’t aware of the complicated intellectual property rights issues regarding Spider-Man, let me give you a quick bullet-point summary.
- Marvel Comics went bankrupt in the 90s and sold off the movies rights of certain characters in order to remind financially solvent.
- FOX bought X-Men and Fantastic Four. Sony bought Spider-Man and associated characters, including Venom, Morbius, etc.
- Marvel scraped together enough money in 2008 to produce Iron Man, beginning the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) into existence, where it just kept gaining momentum.
- Disney bought Marvel providing them with unlimited funds to produce whatever movie they want. Disney also bought FOX, meaning Marvel now regains the rights to their X-Men and Fantastic Four characters.
- Meanwhile, Sony made the Tobey and Andrew Spider-Man movies, ultimately struggling to maintain the type of quality the MCU was becoming known for.
- Marvel wanted to use Spider-Man in the MCU, so Sony began “lending” Marvel back their own comic book character in a deal that us mere mortals would need a lawyer as good as Matt Murdock to fully understand. But that Disney / Sony is what is allowing the Tom Holland Spider-Man to exist in the MCU, although it remains murky if Tom Holland will appear in Sony-produced projects like Venom or Morbius.
OK, back to business. These movies have worked on pretty much every level and No Way Home was an epic third movie, breaking the lofty financial and audience score benchmarks of even the first two Tom Holland Spider-Man movies.
This movie also opened the door, or portal as it were, to many possible future Spider-Man projects. So, from here on out this article is a pure speculation joy ride of the Spider-verse. So hop in!
More Andrew Garfield Spider-Man
In my opinion, Andrew Garfield really benefited from this crossover to redeem his version of Amazing Spider-Man. So much so that there are plenty of rumors swirling about finally getting that third Amazing Spider-Man offering.
Specifically, the mid credits scene opens up the possibility of an Amazing Spider-man and Venom crossover! So here is where we get wild and dig for clues: Do you remember that scene where the Spiderfolk were talking about craziest villains they faced, and Holland and McGuire talked about fighting aliens and Garfield says, “I wanna fight an alien.”
Yeah, like half of the internet, I’m running with that line to make a whole movie!
Honestly, I could barely make it through either of the first two Amazing Spider-Man movies. But after No Way Home, I would line up to see Andrew Garfield get one more chance on his own, especially if they could save two failing properties by making it the Amazing Spider-Man vs Venom.
What about a Miles Morales Spider-Man?
Okay, here is the real cream of the crop: What if Sony uses this also to launch Mile Morales!?
I’m not Matt Murdock, so I have no idea about contracts and property rights. I just know what rumors I like from the internet, and I like this one…A LOT! Remember that scene when Jamie Foxx was like, “I just thought Spider-Man might be black, you know?” Yeah, we are running with that line to launch a whole property!
I can’t imagine Sony isn’t already working on how to capitalize on the success of No Way Home and the hope is maybe this can work out well for all corporations so that we, the people, can get more Spiderfolk. If Sony can give Garfield a final movie, but then hand it off to Morales, maybe, just maybe it will open the possibility for Holland’s Spider-Man to be a mainstay in the Disney MCU. A guy can dream, right?
Holland is essentially an actor in a role that is perfect to build your next wave of Avengers around. While I grew up in the decades that make Tobey my Spider-Man, Holland is clearly the best on-screen Spider-Man of all time and he is just so darn likeable!
While Wave 4 is showing some promise with characters like Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop, Disney needs to replace the gaping holes left by Iron Man and Captain America as the leaders of the Avengers. I think Holland’s Spider-Man and Anthony Mackie as Captain Sam Wilson can replace these two as the leadership of the Avengers. Add in Kate Bishop and Yelena essentially taking the roles of Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov and the team is starting to round out. Gosh, as an aside, can we talk about how good the Disney+ show Hawkeye was? No, no, we don’t have time right now, but it was so very, very good!
I know it is probably a fool’s errand to hope that Sony and Disney can play nice and make all my fanboy dreams come true, but gosh, what if… right? What we need is a bunch of wealthy powerful execs to get in a room and find a mutually beneficial deal for everyone to be satisfied with their cut to make this happen, how hard can that be?
The one thing you won’t read here is any sort of Tobey McGuire / Sam Raimi reboot, because I think that whole era is finally closed. And it was a good run!
One thing missing from this potential Spider-Verse on the live action screen is Spider Gwen. However, might want to keep that in the back pocket for right now.
What do you all think, what are some likely things we can see if the Spider-Verse going forward?
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