Summary
In late 2021,Spider-Man: No Way Homereleased in movie theaters and brought three generations of the iconic superhero on the screen together at the same time. In many ways,No Way Homefelt like a conclusion to 20+ years of storytelling forSpider-Manas a character, but it also provided a new beginning for Tom Holland’s version of the character, setting up his future within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and promising some incredibly exciting stories with the hero going forward.
Sony has confirmed thatSpider-Man 4is in active development, and although plot details are relatively scarce right now (especially with the current strikes going on in Hollywood), it does seem as if it will be a more faithful adaption of the character from the comic books. The first phase of Spider-Man in the MCU had the character appear notably different from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield versions of the character, but the hero now appears to be more like the classic iteration. Moving forward,Spider-Man 4should lean into that comic book source material more, and even take inspiration from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.
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Spider-Man works great in a standalone story
One of the most popular aspects of the MCU is the franchise’s ability to turn heroes who were previously relatively unknown and imbed them within their universe, thus making audiences more interested in them. That works wonders for certain heroes, but it isn’t exactly necessary for characters like Spider-Man. The Web Crawler is arguably the most popular superhero of all time, so he doesn’t really need to be featured in a story that is constantly referencing the broader universe. That worked forSpider-Man: Homecoming,which was the first solo-filmfor the hero in the MCU, meaning that the writers wanted to make it clear to audiences which world he was in now. However, going forward, Spider-Man would thrive more in a more isolated story. In the comic books, Spider-Man also has a fully built out world of his own, with so many different villains and side characters that make the city feel lived in. That means that the story can be isolated within that world, which is more than big enough and, therefore, doesn’tneed so many MCU referencesall the time.
Make the stakes small and personal
In Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, the final battles were always big and the city was usually put in danger by a supervillain, but at the heart of the story was always the personal side of things for the personunder the Spider-Man mask, Peter Parker. His money troubles, balancing life as a hero with being a full-time college student (with a job), and making sure he had time for the people closest to him were all the constant struggles for Peter Parker across the three films. All of these themes were relevant and relatable for the audience, and it provided the emotional backbone for the three films.
It’s that personal and smaller-scale feeling thatSpider-Man 4would be wise to tap into and learn from. A huge reason why Spider-Man is so popular as a hero is because of his relatability, something that theSpiderversefilms played with as well, but these themes haven’t been quite as prevalent in the MCU as Tom Holland’s iteration of the character has been busy fighting aliens in space or huge multiverse villains. While it was amazing and refreshing for audiences to see Spider-Man team up with other Marvel heroes tofight villains like Thanos, it now feels like the right time to lean back into the smaller and personal stories that the character is known for. That’s what Sam Raimi did for his Spider-Man trilogy, and the character’s next solo installment in the MCU feels like the right time to return to that.
Create a compelling villain with a relatable motivation
It wasn’t just the hero that had relatability in Raimi’s films, however. The Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Venom, Sandman, and all of the villains that Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man faced had understandable motivations for turning evil. For example, the Green Goblin was driven by scientific curiosity and desperation to keep control of his company before he was poisoned by a toxic gas that turned him manic and dangerous.
The same sort of thing happened to Doc Ock, whose mind became controlled by the very tentacles that he created. Sandman is arguably the most obvious example of a relatable villain with an understandable motivation, as he simply wanted to save his daughter who was sick. The MCUhas leaned into these themesa bit with the villains, including Michael Keaton’s Vulture, who utilized the destruction of New York City during the firstAvengersfilm to make money for his family, but it wasn’t played with enough to be as interesting as it was in the Raimi films. Looking forward, returning to a more compelling, unique villain, hopefully one that hasn’t been depicted in live action yet, would be the best course of action forSpider-Man 4.
