Spider-Man: Homeless? - What's Next For Tom Holland's Peter Parker?

5. The Original Plan

Spider Man Far From Home Mysterio Fall
Marvel Studios

In June 2017, Tom Holland expressed caution over the long term prospects for his Spider-Man, wary of being typecast:

”I really am having the time of my life. But as far as my future goes, I want to stretch myself as an actor in a way that Jake Gyllenhaal, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Meryl Streep do. I don’t want to be stuck to one character. I think that’s what can happen when you take on a superhero movie. So every conversation I have with my agent is, “What have you got for me? What’s next? Who can I play?”

Luckily, by July this year he was more relaxed about the idea:

“I’ll do 26 of these movies if they ask me. I get to travel the world, I get to play a character that I’ve grown up loving my whole life. So if they want me doing this until I’m Hugh Jackman’s age, then I will be.”

Given that Holland let slip in the early going that Sony and Marvel Studios planned on making a trilogy together, the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home looked to have taken Peter Parker into uncharted territory.

Kevin Feige certainly thought as much, suggesting prior to the split that a third film would see a radically different idea for Spider-Man. Spoilers for Far From Home ahead, people:

“...we're going to have to do something completely different next time... now people know Peter's identity. People now think he's a villain, Mysterio plays one last trick on him and succeeds... [so that] means everything's different. Where it goes, we'll see. But it's exciting that it once again sets us up for a Peter Parker story that has never been done before on film.”

Jon Watts and Holland himself were as excited as Feige, already spitballing ideas before Far From Home had been out a week. Watts in particular dismissed talk of Osborns and Goblins as old hat, expressing his love for longtime Spider-Man villain Kraven, who’d never been seen on the big screen:

“I mean, yeah, I always just try to start with what haven’t we seen before? And there’s so many Spider-Man villains. I mean, the fact that I got to, in a way, bring Hydro-Man and Molten Man to a movie, really, I get a kick out of that, even if they are fake. But, no, I don’t know who’s next. I always like to think about it in terms of what’s going to be the most difficult thing for Peter. So that’s going to be the next trick… I would love Kraven. It’s just the trick of how do you do Kraven in a movie?”

However, when Marvel Studios unveiled their big Phase 4 announcement at last month’s San Diego Comic Con - the media rollout that sketched out the shape of the MCU until the end of 2021- Spider-Man wasn't a part of it. Yet Marvel seemed to be saving sequels to monster hits Captain Marvel and Black Panther for Phase 5 too. People weren’t worried.

It turned out they should have been.

NEXT: WHAT MIGHT SONY’S PLANS BE FOR SPIDER-MAN?

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Contributor

Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.