What’s next for Spider-Man? Well, after two blockbuster hits, a threequel has been fast-tracked – pandemic-related delays to filming notwithstanding. But it seems Marvel have big plans for expanding the franchise, too, with callbacks to previous versions of the character hot on their list.
According to sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk shows are in development, the Justice League Snyder Cut is coming to HBO Max and the Inhumans are being rebooted, all of which were correct – Tom Holland is pushing for Tobey Maguire to play the MCU’s Uncle Ben in a flashback or two at some point in the Spider-Man franchise. Though Marvel/Sony are reportedly planning to do a live-action Spider-Verse with Tobey returning as Spidey as well, he can still show up as Uncle Ben if he wants, given that this Ben would be from the main MCU timeline while Tobey’s Spidey would be from a different one, and it’ll be explained away as his version of Peter Parker simply resembling the main timeline’s Ben.
While there’s no telling if Maguire would be up for this, it’s certainly something that Holland would like to see, we’re told, and is just one of many madcap Spider-Man ideas doing the rounds right now. Some of them are intriguing, some the stuff of fanboy dreams, some aren’t entirely convincing and some are a bit of each.
For instance, we already know that Sam Raimi – Godfather of Spidey’s film presence – is returning to the superhero scene with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Imagine if he went one step further though and returned to Spider-Man as well. Perhaps with a future sequel. That one feels too close to home for me, like if Christopher Nolan returned to Batman as a director, but it’s apparently something that’s being discussed.
Perhaps the maddest story of them all though concerns the aforementioned live-action Spider-Verse movie, which could see all 3 actors to have played the character appear together. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse really seems to have tickled someone’s fancy, but would it be a marvelous (ouch) web-slinging celebration, or an audience-drowning nostalgia bath?
Who knows, but if the script’s good, they can make it work. Into the Spider-Verse teased a whole universe of Spider-Men without fully delivering on them and a live-action movie could do just that.
But tell us, how does the idea of Tobey Maguire in the MCU sound to you? Maguire as Uncle Ben to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man would certainly be a hit with the fans, but could it really happen? Let us know what you think down below.
