After what feels like an eternity of fan speculation of when the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer would drop it’s finally made it’s way online, thanks to Sony Pictures.
For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a Super Hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
The cast consists of Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Jamie Foxx as Electro, Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus, Jon Favreau, Hannibal Buress, Jacob Batalon, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Marisa Tomei, Angourie Rice, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Paula Newsome, and J.B Smoove.
We’ve now have concrete confirmations that Benedict Wong and possibly Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn/Green Goblin will appear as well. We see a pumpkin bomb show up, someone trying to attack Peter in the shadows, Electro using his powers, and Alfred Molina’s glorious Doctor Octopus.
The Multiverse was first teased in WandaVision, but fully realized in the Loki series with the TVA and Kang’s variant. It’s currently being explored with the What If…? animated show, however, there is something tonally off with that project compared to previous live-action stuff on Disney+. Hopefully, things will get better as more episodes air.
It seems like there will be a slight break for director Jon Watts, as he’ll be focusing on Fantastic Four next, as Marvel Studios will reboot the superhero team for the MCU. However, since making the announcement in December, they haven’t given any indication when they’ll begin production on Fantastic Four.
This isn’t terribly surprising as we haven’t had an announcement concerning Spider-Man 4 and Holland has revealed he completed his contract with No Way Home (he’s indicated he wants to resign but likely re-negotiate more for money). A small hiatus might be just the break everyone involved in the trilogy of films needs at this point.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is expected to debut on December 17, barring any further release delays.
A lot of Spider-Man fans are excited but also slightly confused about what Sony Pictures is actually planning to doing with their Spider-Man franchise and subsequent spinoff films such as Kraven The Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Tenet, Avengers: Age of Ultron) being announced for a release date of January 13, 2023.
Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group President Sanford Panitch revealed to Variety that Venom: Let There Be Carnage won’t include Tom Holland’s Spider-Man but reassures that audiences won’t miss the the web-head. However, he went on to clarify they do have a plan that will become more clear after the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
PANITCH: “There actually is a plan. I think now maybe it’s getting a little more clear for people where we’re headed and I think when ‘No Way Home’ comes out, even more will be revealed.”
The Sony executive also responded to the possibility of them resurrecting their former plans to make a Sinister Six film, something franchise producer Amy Pascal has said in the past she would be open to revisiting.
PANITCH: “It’s tough, because I think these projects are the kind of things we have to work on in the dark. They’re not ready until they’re ready. Kraven is a great example because we just didn’t rush it. We could have made that three plus years ago. It’s just now the script’s awesome, J.C. was the right choice, and we found the movie star because it was just kismet, and watching this other movie and realizing that could be the perfect casting.”
“It would be very cool, wouldn’t it?”
Drew Goddard (The Martian, Cabin In The Woods) was once attached to make the Sinister Six film until the studio got cold-feet from Amazing Spider-Man 2’s poor reception and they instead pivoted to making a deal with Marvel Studios, rebooting the franchise for a second time with Holland.
There have been wild casting and plot rumors concerning Spider-Man: No Way Home, from key actors from previous films reprising their villain roles to having people like Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire showing up (denied by both Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield in recent interviews). One of the more recent unconfirmed rumblings making the rounds is that we might indeed see an incarnation of the Sinister Six, something a lot of us just assumed was Marvel Studios’ aim once people like Jamie Foxx (Electro) and Alfred Molina (Doctor Octopus) were confirmed for the film that the film was going to build-up to. Bringing back existing actors quietly into those previous roles would allow them to assemble the Sinister Six quickly without have to rehash all their origins eating-up valuable screentime.
However, with most of these rumors, they are coming from multiple online sources (some are indeed creditable), but the information hasn’t actually been backed-up by the trades or confirmed by either Marvel Studios or Sony Pictures. So, it’s been tough to navigate which ones are real and which ones are simply online gossip or speculation. Many fans believe a teaser trailer is on the horizon and could answer a lot of their questions, but given Marvel’s secrecy it’s possible they could continue to hold-off confirming these cast and plot rumors.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is swinging to theaters on December 17, 2021.
While they posted very real first look images from Spider-Man 3 on their Instagram accounts, the trio of cast members included what looked to be joke titles for the third installment which included Spider-Man: Phone Home (from Tom Holland), Spider-Man: Home-Wrecker (from Jacob Batalon), and Spider-Man: Home Slice (from Zendaya).
We still don’t know if any of the three titles are even real as Tom Holland didn’t elaborate on his late night appearance.
Despite fans hoping that Tom Holland would make an announcement concerning bringing back former Spider-Man actors or reveal the true title, the Spidey actor didn’t blab or say too much outside revealing he’s read the full script “from beginning to the end” while speaking with late night host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.
Holland is doubling-down on previous statements that if they are in the film Marvel Studios hasn’t shared the information with him, but in the new interview with Fallon adding that he’s read the entire script.
Today, Sony Pictures has announced they’ve again moved the release date of their upcoming Spider-Man spinoff feature film Morbius, starring Oscar-winner Jared Leto as Doctor Michael Morbius, a scientist that accidentally turns himself into a vampire.
The release date has been moved to October 8th after being set for March 19th previously.
It’s first teaser trailer revealed the interconnection with the solo Spider-Man films made by Marvel Studios as it featured Michael Keaton‘s Vulture in some sort of jailbreak scene. This has given fans hope that the character will indeed within the Marvel Cinematic Universe or at the very least, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
There is also an expectation that J.K. Simmon’s J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man: FarFrom Home will show up too thanks to previous comments made by the actor.
MORBIUS – One of Marvel’s most compelling and conflicted characters comes to the big screen as Oscar® winner Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero, Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder, and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. What at first appears to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed and transforms this healer into a hunter.
Spider-Man 3 officially started shooting back in November under the working title of TheNovember Project with director Jon Watts behind the camera and there have been waves of rumors concerning the project. Those rumors include it essentially becoming a Spider-Verse story, The Sinister Six looking like big villains of the film, the return of former Peter Parker actors, She-Hulk potentially being Peter’s lawyer, and most recently the big rumbling was Daredevil actor Charlie Cox returning.
Most of these rumors have yet to be confirmed in official circles or even by Marvel. While speaking with Comic Book, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige stated that some of the Spider-Man 3 speculations aren’t very accurate, given the volume of them it shouldn’t be a surprise.
FEIGE: “The fun thing about online speculation when it comes to our stuff is how sometimes it couldn’t be more off the mark and sometimes it’s shockingly close, and that’s held true for the last few years. But saying which is which would take all the fun out of everything.”
“The biggest clue is the title of the second Doctor Strange movie. That’s the biggest clue of where the Multiverse of Madness is taking us and how we’re exploring that.”
We can only further speculate which rumors Feige is talking about here.
Some things are officially known about the upcoming sequel as Kevin confirming that Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is connected to it and this was signaled when Benedict Cumberbatch reportedly joined the character lineup. Both films shooting at the same time likely isn’t a coincidence.
We’re also going to see Jamie Foxx as Electro and Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus stoking those Sinister Six expectations.
Spider-Man 3 will eventually get an official title and has been set for release on December 17th, 2021.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Jamie Foxx would be reprising the Electro role in Spider-Man 3, he’s now taken to Instagram to confirm the news!
However, from new comments from Jamie it sounds like the character is going to indeed be an MCU reboot of Electro rather than the exact same version seen in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
FOXX: “Tell Spidey let’s run it back!… super excited to part of the new marvel Spider-Man new installment… can t wait for y’all to check the new one. And I won’t be blue in this one!! But a thousand percent badass!!!
This could pour cold water on the theory that Kevin Feige was going to bring in a Multiverse version of Spider-Man villains from various incarnations of the franchise and is more of picking actors like they liked to reprise characters.
Removing the blue element from the character would suggest they want a more traditional take on Electro and likely will be their own version of the character instead of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 take.
Marvel has already done this with J.K. Simmons being cast as a rebooted MCU take on J. Jonah Jameson as the character is played by the same actor but acts/looks differently from the previous take from the Sam Raimi films.
I’m more curious if they’re simply assembling the Sinister Six and Kevin Feige wanted Jamie Foxx back in the role of Electro.
Spider-Man 3 is expected to be released on December 17th, 2021.
In a super bizarre casting report from The Hollywood Reporter, Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx is reprising the role of Spider-Man villain Electro in the untitled Spider-Man 3 from Marvel Studios.
Foxx played the character is horrible received Spidey film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 the film’s poor reception led to the MCU reboot and casting of Tom Holland. He wouldn’t be the first actor from another incarnation of the Spider-Man franchise to return as J.K. Simmons has returned to play J. Jonah Jameson.
This would be the first casting for Spider-Man 3 reported by a trade.
Before Amazing Spider-Man 2 become a disaster of sorts there had been plans of a Sinister Six movie written and directed by Drew Goddard (The Martian, The Cabin In The Woods), there was an expectation that Jamie Foxx’s Electro would be part of that lineup alongside other characters that were being teased in that second Andrew Garfield film.
There is a chance that they might attempt to fully realize the Sinister Six or at least the MCU version of it. Michael Keaton’s Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming showed up in the Morbius trailer, which could help to establish that Jared Leto’s villain may crossover into the MCU.
Jon Watts is directing again and Tom Holland is set to reprise the Peter Parker role.
Sony Pictures bumped Spider-Man 3’s release date to December 17th, 2021.
On the heels of the news that Spider-Man spinoff film Kraven The Hunter is indeed moving forward at Sony Pictures with Deadline reporting that Triple Frontier director J.C. Chandor is in talks with the studio, it looks like the script will have new writers as well.
Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) wrote the original draft of Kraven and it seems that the studio has brought in some seasoned comic book screenwriters with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway as mentioned in Deadline’s report.
The writing duo is behind the first Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, Men In Black: International, and fellow Spider-Man spinoff Morbius. They most recently worked with Sony on the Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg video game adaptation Uncharted, currently filming in Germany.
Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven The Hunter is a Russian game hunter that crosses paths with multiple Marvel Comics heroes over the years but is primarily known as a Spider-Man villain, which has led to some speculation that Kraven could be showing up in Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man 3 and because of comments from director Ryan Coogler assumptions he may appear in Black Panther 2 as well.
Neither rumors have been confirmed in any substantial way but there is a shot that Sony will attempt to add Tom Holland to this new Kraven spinoff according to previous comments made by the film’s original screenwriter Richard Wenk.
Speaking with Discussing Film (via SlashFilm) in the fall of 2018, Kraven screenwriter Richard Wenk suggested that Spider-Man would be part of the film.
WENK: “I’m just starting it. It’s an interesting world. A great character. It’s going to adhere very closely to the lore of Kraven the Hunter. And he is going to come face to face with Spider-Man. I’m just beginning it, beginning the process, and because it’s a big IP, Marvel world, there’s lots of hurdles to overcome before you can start writing, to crack the right story and to get the right tone. It’s a new world for me. But what’s nice about it is it’s a very grounded character, he doesn’t have a lot of crazy superpowers and things like that so he’s more grounded and that fits what I like to do. That’s as much as I know.”
Hiring new writers could put into question if we will ultimately see Holland’s Peter Paker being part of the film as that version may have changed since subsequent rewrites from Marcum and Holloway.
However, there are clear signs that these Sony-made Marvel films already connect directly to the Marvel-made solo Spider-Man films suggesting a crossover with Holland’s Spidey is only a matter of time.
Morbius is confirmed to be directly tied to the MCU Spider-Man films after the trailer revealed that Michael Keaton’s Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming is showing up in the film during some jailbreak sequence with Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius linking Homecoming to Morbius.
It also gave a direct nod to the final scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home when Parker’s identity is revealed and is framed for the murder of the villainous Quentin Beck aka Mysterio, as Morbius walks past a Spider-Man poster with “murderer” painted on it.
J.K. Simmons confirmed to SiriusXM that he filmed another J. Jonah Jameson cameo possibly for Morbius or Venom: Let There Be Carnage along with a plan to do another. Jameson could be another character that moves between the MCU and Sony-made films.
SIMMONS: “There is one more JJJ appearance in the can and from what I’m hearing there is a plan for yet another one. Hopefully, JJJ will continue now and forever.”
Kraven’s half-brother may have actually cameoed in Spider-Man: Far From Home, as Numar Acar played Nick Fury (Talos) associate Dimitri, who may or may not be a version of Dimitri Smerdyakov aka The Chameleon.
We’re yet to see Venom: Let There Be Carnage have any real significant crossover stuff as they have yet to release a trailer for the upcoming sequel, unless they’ve snuck a cameo from J.K. Simmon’s newly revived J. Jonah Jameson.
Kraven is yet another part of Sony’s greater plans for its splinter Marvel cinematic universe with the unfortunate corporate name Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, yes that is the official name they’re going with.
Here is a rundown of the other Marvel projects in the works and releasing from Sony Pictures.
The studio recently moved Morbius to a release date of March 19th, 2021, and placed the Venom sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage to June 24th, 2021.
Spider-Man 3 from director Jon Watts is supposed to begin shooting this winter with a December 17th, 2021 release date but there is a likelihood that production starts in early 2021. The combination of COVID-19, multiple filming locations, and the Uncharted shoot will likely be determining factors if they’ll be able to start or finish on schedule.
A potential Spider-Woman film will be directed by Olivia Wilde according to Deadline with a script from Wilde and Katie Silberman, a previous script was penned by Gary Spinelli (American Made, Chaos Walking). If the film is indeed Spider-Woman, it would focus on Jessica Drew and suggests the project could be handled by Marvel Studios in another co-production deal because Marvel has access to Drew as she didn’t originate in the pages of Spider-Man comics.
Madame Web will be directed by S.J. Clarkson but the report from Variety stressed that while a screenwriter hadn’t been chosen the studio was interested in casting Amy Adams and Charlize Theron, then building a script around that actress.
Jackpot is another female-led superhero project at Sony that will have a script from Marc Guggenheim (Green Lantern, Arrow), a director has yet to be announced though.
A Sinister Six film was being developed during The Amazing Spider-Man era with Drew Goddard (The Martian) attached to write and direct. It also crumbled to pieces when Sony decided to reboot the character for a second time scrapping the project in the process. Franchise producer Amy Pascal has voiced some interest in circling back to Goddard and Sinister Six at some point.
Black Cat and Silver Sable could end up getting solo movies after their team-up film Silver & Black saw it’s production halted and was split into two solo projects instead. There haven’t been many updates on the progress of either film. It’s possible that multiple character and plot leaks contributed to Sony ultimately putting the film in ice.
Nightwatch and Silk might also eventually get their own films, but again there haven’t been recent updates on their status at the studio.
Back in March, The Wrap reported that screenwriter Roberto Orci was attached to write an untitled Spider-Man spinoff for Sony, but the information hasn’t been supported by other outlets or what that project will be. There had also been rumors from The Iluminerdi that characters such as Man-Wolf and Solo could be getting their own films as well, this has yet to be supported by the trades. Either could end up being this potential untitled Orci project.
Marvel’s standing deal with Sony for Spider-Man allows them to make Spider-Man 3 keeping it within the MCU and they’ll have access to Spidey for another undisclosed Marvel Studios film. It’s a strong possibility that Disney and Sony could re-up the deal in the not too distant future.
We’ll have to wait and see what projects ultimately go in front of cameras and are released by the studio. It’s worth noting that a production timeline for Kraven The Hunter andOlivia Wilde’s film seemingly hasn’t been locked-down.
THE RONIN 