Sony’s dual attempts at maintaining a Spider-Man franchise both fell apart because of the studio’s desire to pile too much into the movies. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 would have been a much leaner, meaner and altogether better beast without the symbiote subplot, but the director was pressured into including the fan favorite character because Avi Arad already had one eye on the toy sales.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, meanwhile, was a teaser trailer for Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six, which only served to push Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker to the fringes of his own story, and multiple spinoffs ended up getting canceled when Marc Webb’s sequel underperformed. And as for Tom Holland, he’s already played the web-slinger the same number of times as his two predecessors combined, at least until they all join forces in next year’s multiversal Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster.
As well as Garfield and Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane, Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, Jamie Foxx’s Electro and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus are all expected to come along for the ride, and insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that Willem Dafoe is also poised to follow suit, with the actor reportedly in talks for both Spider-Man 3 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Norman Osborn has been rumored for an MCU debut for years now, of course, and what better way to accomplish it than bringing back the original vintage? James Franco, Dane DeHaan and Chris Cooper all played members of the family to a much lesser degree, and fans still love Dafoe’s scenery chewing performance from Raimi’s 2002 original. That being said, almost everyone to have appeared in a Spider-Man movie has been linked with a return via the multiverse, so we’re best not getting our hopes up too much just yet. Still, Richtman has a solid track record and with any luck, Dafoe will end up signing on.
