By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Spider-Man will face his greatest challenge as the live-action multiverse is confirmed! Fans of Sony’s franchise got a tease with Into the Spider-Verse in 2018, and since then, just what’s next is anyone’s guess. Early last week, Variety reported about Alfred Molina (Doctor Ock) making a return. On the list includes Jamie Foxx (Electro) and all I can think of is: Sinister Six! We’ve seen The Vulture, Rhino and Sandman in past versions of the trilogy, but will they appear? The next film is only in the planning/screen-writing phase.
Over on Skynews, the report about Andrew Garfield, Kirsten Dunst and Emma Stone also appearing is as exciting. All we need is the negotiations to bring Tobey Maguire to go well, otherwise script revisions may be in order.
It’s hard to say if the other Spider-Mans from the other universes–the past two trilogies–will play throughout the movie or they are here for a bit part. The screenplay is still being worked on. However, when compared to the television Crisis of Infinite Earths crossover on TheCW, I’m hoping they get over 10-15 minutes of screen time.
Just how these characters can appear is most likely because of the time-stone from Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame. It wasn’t properly restored to the timeline, and this hiccup is enough to cause Spidey to deal with these alternative histories. Somehow, it may come into play to preserve his secret identity.
In what’s currently known about this film is that Doctor Strange plays an important role. He’s seen all the variations of past, present and future and understands what must transpire to protect his native dimension.
My theory is that when we have magic in this equation, having someone with similar psionic ability proves helpful. I suspect this third film may introduce Madame Web, and help change the timeline enough so that nobody knows Spider-Man’s secret identity. In the comics, she’s a talented psychic. She’s able to look into the future and manipulate objects with her mind. In the 90s animated series, she’s a time travelling Goddess of Fate, and travels between alternate realities. I can see her appearing in either this film or the next Into the Multiverse.
It’s very unlikely Venom will appear. Sony has other plans for this standalone film which one day become part of the MCU world. This anti-hero is nothing without the iconic white emblem. I’m hoping Tom Holland’s Spider-Man meets another symbiote. And by the time this entity reunites with some other of its kind, the Eddie Brock version, to witness the three symbiotes fuse to become something greater can make for some next movie fun. The next Venom movie introduces Carnage, so it’s going to be crazy! I need this gravitas since the comics have always shown how this alien felt divided in who is better, either feeding off the anger from Brock or giving Parker the willpower he lacks.
Thankfully, the watchful eyes of Marvel Entertainment are there to help manage this Spider property. Ever since they helped with the last two films, the MCU could not be any better!
