Credit: Marvel Studios, Sony PicturesWho can get enough of Spidey?
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The story of Peter Parker, a boy from New York who gets bitten by a radioactive spider and undergoes a transformation into the legendary superhero Spider-Man, is a tale known worldwide. At its core, this iconic narrative conveys the moral lesson that “with great power comes great responsibility”.
Bringing together famous characters like Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborne, the Green Goblin, and Doc Ock — the tale of Spider-Man is a legendary story that has been reimagined across various mediums, from animated adaptations to live-action films and beyond.
Throughout the years, different actors across the Multiverse have taken on the legendary Spider-Man character in movie adaptations inspired by the Marvel Comics created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Tobey Maguire portrayed Spider-Man in Sam Raimi’s film trilogy starting in 2002, followed by Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012.
Tom Holland, who made his debut in Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Captain America: Civil War in 2016, assumed the lead role in Spider-Man films starting with Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. He also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 and the 2021 film Spider-Man: No Way Home, sharing the screen with Maguire and Garfield — all under the watchful eye of Marvel President Kevin Feige.
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A New Lease on Spider-Man
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Spider-Verse is one of the franchise’s most successful Spider-Man stories — which is now also canon to the MCU with references to Holland’s Spider-Man in most recent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) film.
The franchise has seen remarkable expansion in recent years, starting with the groundbreaking release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. In the film, Shameik Moore plays Miles Morales/Spider-Man, whose universe’s original Peter Parker (Chris Pine) tragically perishes at the hands of Wilson Fisk, also known as Kingpin (Liev Schreiber).
As Miles becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving his uncle Aaron Davis (Mahershala Ali), who transforms into the villainous Prowler, he teams up with various Spider-People from different dimensions. This includes Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, also known as Spider-Woman, and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker. They recently reprised their roles in the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which released in June this year.
Joining the cast for this new installment are Spider Society leader Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara, also known as Spider-Man 2099, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, also known as Spider-Woman, Daniel Kaluuya as Hobart Brown/Hobie, or Spider-Punk, Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Ohnn, the Spot, and Brian Tyree Henry and Jefferson Davis and Rio Morales, who portray Miles’ father and mother, respectively.
A Promising New Spidey Update
Ahead of the theatrical release of Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the third installment in the Spider-Verse franchise, viewers can expect to see Miles Morales in another animated short film titled The Spider Within. Thanks to a recent announcement from Sony (via The Direct), fans have learned that Miles’ upcoming “adversary” in this short film will in fact be “anxiety”.
It seems as if the next Spidey installment will push the hero into a “panic attack”, of sorts:
In the short film, Miles has to fight a silent but deadly enemy that many people across the world (and Across the Spider-Verse) have to deal with as well: Anxiety. In the story, the teenager starts getting anxious when his responsibilities as a student, friend, and city savior start to pile up. The pressure ends up making Miles have a panic attack – which in turn forces him to have to confront manifestations of his anxiety.
This sets a whole new tone for the superhero — something a lot more personal, grounded, and even scary — instead of high-flying acrobatics or high octane fight sequences.
Hopefully this will tide Spider-Man movie fans over for the time being — that is, until Holland’s web-slinging variant is confirmed to return to the MCU proper!
What do you think of the next Spider-Man outing? Are you excited? Share your thoughts in the comments below!