As Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida, threatening widespread destruction, MCU fans are grappling with a disaster of their own.
Among the most successful franchises contained within the sprawling cinematic universe is easily the Tom Holland-helmed Spider-Man, which has put out three films so far, all of them near-universally popular. The third and latest, No Way Home, even tossed in some cameos that were decades in the making and in the process elevated the film to the top of the pack.
No Way Home‘s popularity hinged on several factors, including an engaging and mind-bending story, those gratifying cameos, and the titillating conclusion. After watching the Wall Crawler spend a bulk of his time in the MCU assisting in truly world (and even galaxy)-changing saves, No Way Home pivoted back to base, and prepped to give fans the down-home, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man we’ve been waiting for.
This Spider-Man has no billionaire playboy philanthropist at his back, no Avengers to call in times of need — not even a Ned to be his guy in the chair. Following the events of the third film, Peter is truly set to go it alone, an exciting prospect for fans who grew up adoring the character’s street-level heroics. Fresh details about the incoming film threaten that possibility, however, and people are not pleased.
Reactions to rumors shared by X’s Cosmic Marvel account quickly came flooding in, and none of them are positive, after the account reported that Spider-Man 4 will contain “multiple symbiotes,” yet more cameos from Maguire and Garfield, and, most egregiously, that the film is leaning toward “a cosmic storyline rather than street-level.”
Street-level is exactly what fans have been waiting for, so news that the MCU may just ditch this exciting direction to toss Peter into the same mold as every other Marvel hero is aggravating. If you want cosmic you go to Captain Marvel, to the Guardians, to Thor, or Valkyrie, or Nick Fury, or the Eternals, for god’s sake, not to Spider-Man. Sure, he’s got the chops to compete with the best, but every Spider-Man fan knows that our boy is best at the basics. He’s chatting up criminals to try and change their minds, scooping up little kids chasing balls into the streets, and solving problems that everyone else is too lofty to notice.
There’s seemingly not a single person out there who’s on board with the teased direction, and they didn’t mince words in their collective demand for the MCU to keep it simple, already.
People rushed to the tweet’s responses to share that, in one single tease, their “hype is gone.”
Demands for the franchise to “try something new” drench the comment section, alongside people begging the MCU to listen to the fanbase, and stop with the excessively epic nonsense.
Fans, desperate to get the Spidey film we’ve been waiting on, even pitched their preferred storylines. Maybe if we do the work for him, Kevin Feige will listen?
Unfortunately for all we poor, ignored Spider-Man fans, the MCU doesn’t have the best reputation for storytelling at the moment. The franchise has been making mistake after mistake in recent years, with one of the last truly excellent superhero films (outside of Deadpool & Wolverine) being Spider-Man: No Way Home. Unless the franchise can pull out that same magic again — something it definitely won’t accomplish by rehashing used storylines — we may be facing the beginning of the end of a media titan.