Soon after Spider-Man: No Way Home hit theaters, Marvel and Sony confirmed they were making a fourth Spider-Man movie. After more than two years and several delays for multiple MCU projects, we still don’t have a release date for Spider-Man 4, but there’s no shortage of rumors about the sequel that so many Marvel fans are dying to see.
Truth be told, Sony and Marvel aren’t in a place to announce a Spider-Man 4 release date anytime soon. The industry is still recovering after the strikes from last year that halted work in Hollywood. Marvel has delayed most of its 2024 releases to next year, and more delays will follow. I don’t expect Avengers 5 or Secret Wars to stick to their dates, either.
The delays will hopefully help Marvel right the ship and improve the quality of its films and TV shows. In the process, Marvel is probably our only hope for preventing Sony from ruining Spider-Man 4. Because if this insider’s report is accurate, Sony wants the movie to be as huge as No Way Home. Before I tell you why that’s a bad idea, know that big Spider-Man 4 spoilers might follow below.
Spider-Man 4 doesn’t need the multiverse
No Way Home made nearly $2 billion at the box office for two reasons. First, it features massive cameos from Sony’s previous Spider-Man variants. Second, and this is the most important one, the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield surprises leaked long before the film’s Christmas 2021 premiere. When the film hit theaters, we had extensive proof that the two Spider-Man variants would join Tom Holland.
What’s great about No Way Home is that it removed everything from Peter Parker, cleaning the slate for a soft reboot. Spider-Man 4 will give us a Peter nobody knows. He has no family left, and his friends and love interest do not recognize him. Spidey also lost the high-tech Spider-Man suit that turned him into an overpowered hero.
Therefore, Spider-Man 4 should be a new beginning for the MCU’s main Spider-Man. And I did say that Spider-Man 4 has the potential to be more exciting than No Way Home, considering all the plot leaks.
The gist of it is that Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) will be the mayor of New York City, something the Echo credits scene teases. Peter will team up with Daredevil (Charlie Cox) to address a potential ban on vigilantes that Fisk wants to implement. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) might also appear in the sequel.
Does any of this need the multiverse? No, it doesn’t. Unless you’re Sony, and you’re thinking up ways to ruin Spider-Man 4.
The Maguire-Garfield leak
That is, we don’t need Tobey and Andrew back in Spider-Man 4. But Sony reportedly wants that. The news comes from industry insider Daniel Richtman, who learned that Sony is considering bringing back Maguire and Garfield for Spider-Man 4.
Sony wants the film to be huge, while Kevin Feige wants it to be more grounded. Hopefully, Feige will win.
Otherwise, Sony risks deploying an incredibly dumb plot hole in the movie. What are the chances for these three Spider-Man variants to meet again so soon? I don’t think Sony can figure out a good explanation.
Also, rumors say that both Maguire and Garfield will be back in Secret Wars, which is a massive multiversal war between the Avengers and evil (probably Kang). You can’t keep bringing these two back in Spider-Man flicks. It would only cheapen future cameos.
Sony’s bad Spider-Man history
One might criticize the MCU quality of late, but remember that Sony doesn’t have a great track record with its recent Spider-Man movies. And I do mean both MCU and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) releases.
Remember that in Homecoming, Sony messed up the timeline of events. Then, both Far From Home and No Way Home have a few big plot holes that are too big to ignore. Yet we do it because of the love for these movies. But they do challenge logic and common sense.
Add the questionable quality of the Venom movies and that mind-bending credits scene at the end of Morbius, and you get the picture. Sony needs oversight from Marvel to ensure Spider-Man 4 is a great movie.
Not even the Across the Spider-Verse sequel is perfect, but that’s just the second part of a larger multiverse story. The third installment in the Spider-Verse saga will hopefully tie up all loose ends.
If you’re still unconvinced, you have to hear this anecdote from the Madam Web production, courtesy of Jeff Sneider and The Hot Mic podcast.
Reportedly, Sony wanted the film to take place in the ’90s, so Garfield’s Spider-Man would be part of this reality. They then pivoted to Tom Holland, but someone messed up the timeline calculations or basic math. Therefore, they had to reshoot parts of the movie, so those ’90s references were cut. Check out the hilarious story in the video below.
The point is Sony should absolutely not bring Maguire and Garfield back just yet. Not as long as Spider-Man 4 is a street-level story dealing with Kingpin’s evil. Also, remember that we already had a Spider-Man vs. Kingpin multiverse story in Into the Spider-Verse. We don’t need a live-action version of it so soon.