Exploring Why Tom Holland Should Not Be Involved In Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has been expanding rapidly lately with the releases of Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance, and Kraven the Hunter in quick succession, thus doubling the size of its installments, which had taken more than six years to manifest, in a matter of 11 months.
Unfortunately for Columbia Pictures, even combined, none of these releases could rehabilitate the earlier glory of its previous successes, Morbius notwithstanding. However, the dilemma at its center wasn’t so much the quality of these features but the fading interest among the public over one detail: the SSU has yet to introduce the titular hero itself — Where is Spider-Man?
Sony’s only alternatives are either bringing back a previous Spider-Man actor — three prospects available front and center — or recruiting someone new altogether. The previous live-action iteration, or iterations, of the friendly neighborhood Wall-Crawler was last seen in the 2021 MCU blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home.
In that $1.9 billion blockbuster, Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield were seen joining hands, donning their respective red-and-blue spandex, and incentivizing the multiverse narrative. Moreover, Tom Hardy’s cameo as Venom also hinted at a potential crossover between Marvel and Sony, though nothing has transpired in the years since.
Sony Is Better Off Without Tom Holland
The absence of Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man in Sony’s films may serve as a strategic move to avoid narrative saturation and to allow the character to flourish within the MCU. Given the actor’s commitments with Marvel, where he is expected to embrace a more mature role in his forthcoming solo entries and might also support the newer, younger heroes in their films, as well as Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, Sony might not benefit from his leadership in its simultaneously running series.
Of course, when accounting for the repetitive failures within Marvel’s and Disney’s rich world, where most post-pandemic movies have received disappointing receptions from both fans and critics, Sony may as well be better off without getting involved with the now-infamous MCU.
Is Andrew Garfield a Viable Alternative?
Andrew Garfield‘s return as his very grounded Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home was met with unfathomable enthusiasm by fans who lauded his redemptive character arc. This welcome — a true homecoming in every sense — precipitated social network sites to call on Sony to resume the once-planned The Amazing Spider-Man 3 with the Hacksaw Ridge star.
Notably, the planned TASM 3 was supposed to feature Spider-Man taking on the Sinister Six, aka six distinct foes of the Web-Crawler, many of whom have embraced corresponding roles within Sony’s comparably grounded and broody ongoing universe. These narrative similarities further spotlight why a potential revival of Sony’s earlier plans with Garfield seems a viable option for the studio rather than playing a house of cards with their current series.
