Producers Talk the Future of Spider-Man in the MCU

Producers talk the future of Spider-Man in the MCU

As with every Marvel Studios film, despite fans eagerly anticipating seeing the feature itself, the future is always a question lingering in the back of minds and on the tip of tongues, and Spider-Man is no different.

The future is already being looked at for Spider-Man, with at least two more movies being planned for the web slinger, corresponding to his remaining years as a student, and appearance in Avengers: Infinity War.

“We really want to do multiple movies where he’s in high school,” producer Eric Carroll told us on the set.

The films differ from traditional Marvel Studios films as they’re the product of cooperation between Marvel, Disney, and Sony, which producer Amy Pascal calls “a miraculously smooth partnership.” Moving forward though, future Spider-Man movies won’t carry an asterisk by their name while in development and will be treated as just another movie on the Marvel schedule.

“Going forward we would definitely treat them all as the same slate,” Carroll said. “So we would be as strategic about where future Spider-Man movies fall in the MCU of it all as we would if Sony weren’t involved, because there’s nothing in it for us or Sony to put a movie out at the wrong time or start confusing the continuity.”

Regarding that quote, however, is the recent news of Venom and Silver Sable/Black Cat movies in development at Sony, which, like the upcoming animated Spider-Man movie, are not part of the MCU and are products only of Sony. Pascal did confirm on our visit that the Venom movie was in development but wouldn’t speak further on the matter. To make things even more interesting, when asked about future villains he’d like to see, Tom Holland mentioned the symbiote baddie by name.

“Well, I love Doc Ock,” the young actor said. “I think Spider-Man 2 is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. But I think Venom is someone I’d love to kick the crap out of one day.”

Both villains mentioned by Holland have appeared in previous Spider-Man movies, which isn’t explicitly something Marvel and Sony are shying away from in the future but are also not things they’re eager to re-try either.

“We’ve recycled a lot,” Pascal admitted. “I think there are certain characters I don’t think there’s anything more to say about them right this minute? I mean, I don’t know how many more times we can do the Green Goblin. I’ve certainly tried to do it fifty.”

Carroll echoed these sentiments and further spoke about how Homecoming will be distant from the previous movies.

“We want to tread lightly with what’s been done in the past films as far as The Osbornes and things like that. So I don’t think we’re going directly down that route. We figured honestly if there was a way to do this movie without mentioning anyone who has been in past films, with the exception of staples like Flash Thompson and Aunt May, that that might be a good thing to do.”

For now though, Marvel is just happy to have their Prodigal Son back home.

“It’s like your Dad handing you the keys to the Lamborghini,” Carroll said. “This was the one unspoken rule when you came to work at Marvel, ‘Hey, Spider-Man is the crown jewel, but we’ll never get him back. We’re never getting Spider-Man back, but look at all these other cool characters we have?!’ All of a sudden when there’s this opportunity to play with Spider-Man in the MCU, that’s all it was.”

“I think we found the right formula and I think everybody is going to want the right thing to continue,” Pascal said of the future. “And I think that there’s a surprisingly generous and cooperative thing and if it works, then it’s going to work for everybody.”

Spider-Man: Homecoming will swing into theaters on July 7. For more coverage from the set visit, click here.