Written By Mikey Sutton • Editor-in-Chief • Owner
As the second Spider-Man trilogy will focus on Peter Parker’s college years, he will experience more tragedy and powerful, darker villains, according to insiders.
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is able to accomplish with the Spider-Man franchise what has never been done before in a theatrical franchise: see a superhero played by the same actor grow up from being a wide-eyed teenager to a responsible adult.
The Spider-Man movies that Marvel Studios have produced aren’t about the web-slinger at all; at their heart, their nucleus, they are about Peter Parker. That attitude has enabled them to avoid the excesses of the latter Sony Spider-Man movies, which gradually lost focus after the creative heights of the second Sam Raimi installment.
No scripts have been written for the next trilogy yet, to my knowledge. However, Feige doesn’t go on trips years from now without a road map already pencilled in. The following contains major spoilers if they decide to solidify any of them. Please keep in mind that when I was the first person to scoop the live-action Spider-Verse in 2019, it was at nearly the same stage: Discussions. And talks can lead to actions.
Tragedies
I scooped Ned Leeds becoming the Hobgoblin on October 14, 2020. At the time, I wasn’t aware of what would cause that transformation. I have since been told that among the ideas being tossed around is a tweaking of the classic “Death of Gwen Stacy” storyline from the comics. In The Amazing Spider-Man No. 121, writer Gerry Conway killed off Stacy in one of comicdom’s most disturbing and shocking endings for any character as the Green Goblin threw her off the Brooklyn Bridge. But that’s not why she died.
It was when Spider-Man attempted to save her by shooting webs at her legs to prevent her fall; that he did, but he inadvertently snapped her neck from the abrupt stop. Director Marc Webb tried to adapt that in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but failed miserably as he ended up removing one of his movie’s redeeming qualities, the engaging romantic chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.
It’s been revealed to me that Betty Brant will renew her relationship with Leeds only to suffer a similar fate. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t hear she would die the same way. However, her loss will cause Leeds to snap. At least, that is what they’ve currently discussed.
Villains
The bad guys that Spider-Man will face in college will be on a different power level, matching the maturity of his own abilities, intelligence, and experience. They apparently include not only the Hobgoblin, but Venom, Man-Wolf, and the Kingpin.
Of these, Venom is, of course, inevitable. Tom Hardy’s Venom was a blockbuster for hit-starved Sony, and a battle with Spider-Man is a confrontation millions of fans have anxiously awaited especially after Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 in 2007 didn’t fulfill expectations.
Sources explain that Venom won’t truly be a bad guy when he faces Spider-Man but a misunderstood anti-hero as Sony doesn’t want him to go off on the deep end to protect his own solo franchise; after all, you can’t make the star of a Spider-Man spin-off becoming evil. When Venom does raise hell with Parker, they will collaborate against a mutual foe: Carnage.
I reported on November 26, 2020, that Spider-Man will team up with Daredevil against the Kingpin in this college trilogy. Although best known as Daredevil’s arch enemy because of the Ben Affleck movie and later the Charlie Cox Netflix program, the Kingpin actually debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 50 in 1967. It was writer/artist Frank Miller who made the Kingpin an integral part of Daredevil’s life in his legendary ’80s run on the Man Without Fear.
The Kingpin’s dominion of underworld crime is something not seen in the Spider-Man films as of yet, ripe picking for Feige who constantly wants to flip the formula. Apparently, Tombstone could enter the picture as well, a mutual foe of both Spider-Man and Daredevil. Feige has slyly seeded this already.
Tombstone’s daughter, Janice Lincoln, appeared in Far From Home played by Claire Rushbrook. Puzzle pieces. The crumbs leading to the Kingpin are already there.
Man-Wolf is the kind of FX heavy, visually enthralling bad guy that Marvel Studios sees as an epic villain for Spider-Man, one that Sony has hinted at before but never saw through. Man-Wolf is actually J. Jonah Jameson’s son, John Jameson, who appeared briefly in both Spider-Man 2 and Venom.
Beyond the surface coolness, his new role as Man-Wolf would create more animosity between his dad and Spider-Man, which is why he is even more appealing to Marvel Studios. After all, the MCU is propelled by its family dynamics, good and bad.
After Spider-Man 3 is completed, how the next trio of films end up will be clearer in focus; for now, it’s looking like his skies have ominous clouds looming overhead.
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