Marvel Studios and Sony would be foolish not to revisit Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe again, but finding the right project to move the character’s story arc forward is a difficult if near-impossible challenge.
After throwing a naive and wide-eyed teenage Peter Parker into a world that saw him side with his mentor, Iron Man, in a family feud against Captain America to eventually becoming instrumental in the fight against the Mad Titan himself, Thanos, even dying and being blipped in between, the MCU finally gave audiences a more familiar take with Spider-Man by the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
With the world forgetting his identity following the ultimate sacrifice as he learns what it takes to take responsibility, a more humble and mature Peter Parker now finds himself doing exactly what Happy Hogan had been asking him to do all along – be a “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.”
While this sets up a more grounded and street-level take on Spider-Man in his eventual return, possibly interacting with Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, among others, Sony may have other ideas.
According to @DanielRPK, Sony and the MCU’s big boss, Kevin Feige, have opposing views for Spider-Man 4.
The prominent Marvel insider revealed that Sony wants to bring back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in the fourth Spider-Man film with plans to blow it up and make it huge. However, Kevin Feige wants Spider-Man 4 to have “a more grounded tone”, which is in line with what we got with No Way Home.
Sony and Marvel shocked a pandemic-struck world when Andrew, Tobey, and Cox all appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home. This combination of fan-favorite characters helped the film become the highest-grossing Spider-Man film ever, pulling in over $1.91 billion at the global box office. To date, No Way Home remains the highest-grossing non-Avengers film in the MCU, beating 2018’s Black Panther by nearly $600 million.
Although Spider-Man 4 is all but a sure thing following No Way Home’s success, there’s little official information about its plot and who will be in it. It’s also not part of the MCU’s ever-shifting upcoming release schedule.
Whether Sony’s plans for Spider-Man 4 comes to fruition or not or Kevin Feige has his way, it will have to be special to rope Tom Holland back in. The 27-year-old revealed that the next Spider-Man film “has to do the character justice” for him to return.
Sony is currently working on expanding the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, with Madame Web scheduled for release on February 14 followed by Kraven the Hunter on August 30 and, finally, Venom 3 on November 8.
