Part of making that a reality, according to Feige, is by lowering the stakes so that Peter Parker isn’t necessarily tasked with saving the world. Instead, Feige hopes to make the stakes more personal for Peter, the same way Pixar lowered the stakes in its latest film, Inside Out:
“What’s fun about a Spider-Man movie for us – I think you pointed this out [in an editorial], that Inside Out had the biggest stakes of any movie this summer. Stakes don’t need to be end of the world. Oftentimes, in our films, it is, and in our future films Thanos doesn’t work small. But sometimes the stakes can just be ‘Will this little girl grow up to be healthy and well put-together, or are there too many issues for her to overcome?’ That’s HUGE! That overrides a threat to reality itself. And I think Spider-Man straddles that line in a fun way in his comics. What we wanted was a movie where the stakes could be as high as ‘This bad person is going to do this bad thing, and a lot of people could die’ OR ‘You don’t get home in time and your aunt is going to figure this out, and your whole life is going to change.’
Particularly at that age, in high school, everything feels like life or death. The tests feel like life or death. Coming home from being out with your friends seemed like life or death. The stakes are high at that age, for the same reason [as they are] in Inside Out.”
While that’s all well and good, Feige understands that Spidey needs someone to punch for two hours and understands that fans are ready to see members of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery that haven’t made it to the big screen yet:
“That’s the advantage. Right now we’re interested in seeing villains we haven’t seen before.”
So, does that mean no more Green Goblin? Perhaps, at least for now. Though, don’t be too surprised if characters like Harry and Norman Osborn still show up, as they’re highly important in Peter’s life.
Tom Holland will make his big screen debut as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War on May 6th, 2016. Then, he’ll swing into his own solo franchise when the next Spider-Man film arrives on July 28th, 2017.
