Inside The Spider-Verse: How Spider-Man Movies Are Only Getting Better
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This month, Sony is celebrating 100 years of Columbia Pictures by re-releasing its eight live-action Spider-Man movies in select theaters across the U.S. As Spider-Man 2 takes to the big screen this week, we’re looking back at how the Spider-verse has evolved since Sam Raimi’s first movie swung into our lives in 2002.
Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has come a long way since his first appearance in the Marvel comic, Amazing Fantasy 15, in 1962. Over the past sixty years, we have enjoyed movies, television shows, novels, comics, video games, action figures, you name it. The 2002 Spider-Man movie, directed by Sam Raimi and featuring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, brought our hero to life for a whole new generation of fans.
It’s worth examining the four different Spider-Man iterations we have seen in mainstream cinema in the last 22 years. There are the three Spider-Man franchises starring Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland as Peter Parker, as well as the animated Spider-Verse franchise starring Shameik Moore as Miles Morales. There is also a long list of Spider-Man-adjacent movies, including The Avengers movies, Venom, and Madame Web. With all the talk of superhero fatigue, how is it that the Spider-Man movies have stayed so fresh?
A large part of the answer lies with the character of Spider-Man himself. Both Peter Parker and Miles Morales (who was introduced in the 2011 Marvel comic Ultimate Fallout #4) are classic everymen, allowing them to blend into any time period, culture, or political climate. The story of a boy learning how to use his new powers for good while keeping his secret identity safe is ever-green, and the Spider-Man movies of the last twenty years have blended Peter and Miles into their environments seamlessly. Perhaps one of the best decisions was introducing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, creating a wider plot with higher stakes and greater consequences than a solo Spider-Man movie could achieve. In the animated arena, the two Spider-Verse movies, which rank the highest of all Spider-Man movies on Rotten Tomatoes, have broken new ground with their electric style and beautiful, immersive depiction of the multiverse.
Another thing that keeps fans coming back time and time again is the stellar cast of each franchise. Our leading men have given consistently strong performances (not counting that scene from Spider-Man 3), not to mention talented supporting casts. But for many people, it’s the villains, played by some of the best actors of our time, that get us back in our seats every time. Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin, Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus, Thomas Hayden Church, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Kathryn Hahn, Jamie Foxx, Rhys Ifans, and Jake Gyllenhaal, to name but some, deliver powerful performances that raise the stakes (acting and otherwise) in each movie. The return of some of our favorite villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) felt like we had come full circle, celebrating the past while forging a brand-new future.
So when will that future manifest? In an interview with Deadline earlier this week, Tom Holland gave us hope that a fourth Spider-Man movie is in the works, saying “Everyone wants it to happen.” However, he stressed that “we need to make sure we do the right thing” and “we have a legacy to protect.” Fans are eager to see where Spider-Man’s story will take him, given where we last saw him at the end of No Way Home. Many hope that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will reprise their roles and join Tom Holland once again. As for Miles Morales, Beyond the Spider-Verse, the third and final installment of the Spider-Verse trilogy, was originally set for release in March 2024 but was pushed back by Sony to an unspecified date.
It seems we’ll have a while to wait before we get a new Spidey story on our screens, but Sony isn’t forgetting about us entirely. They have several movies from the Spider-Man universe up their sleeves, most recently the disappointing Madame Web released in February. We hope that Kraven the Hunter and Venom 3, which are both scheduled for release later in 2024, will fare better. In the meantime, Sony’s re-release of the existing eight movies gives younger fans the chance to see their hero on the big screen for the first time while older fans relive the glory of days gone by.
Do you have a favorite Spider-Man flick and, if so, tell us which one and why? Let us know in the comment section below. And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest in TV & movies, online deals, and more.
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