A Live-Action Spider-Verse is Brewing
Nothing tingles the geek-senses like the word “crossover.” If you’re a fan of any fandom, whether it be Rick and Morty, Arrowverse, or in this case, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), we all wish and hope for a crossover at some point. Rick and Morty has crossed-over with numerous fandoms, including Dungeons & Dragons and The Simpsons, the Arrowverse gave us the multi-episode event Crisis on Infinite Earths, and of course, the MCU gave us Avengers: Endgame, a movie event so massive that it took over ten years to build up to. But there is another Marvel crossover that fans won’t shut up about: the Multiverse, more specifically: the Spider-verse.
Now, you’ve probably heard enough about the Spider-verse for the past three years, ever since the phenomenon that is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse was announced and eventually released. The film follows Miles Morales, as he starts his journey as Spider-Man, being helped by Spider-people from different dimensions. The movie was so good that a sequel was announced shortly after the release of the first film for 2022. But, fans haven’t been speculating about what’s going to happen in that film, they are more worried about the third installment of the MCU’s Spider-Man, speculating and theorizing that Tobey Maguire, from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and Andrew Garfield, from Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man two-logy, would make appearances and/or be main characters in Jon Watts’ third Spider-Man film. This has been a theory for a few years now, becoming more and more prevalent with the release of Endgame and Into the Spider-verse, but it seems like now, more than ever, that rumor is about to become reality. And it all started with Jamie Foxx.
On October 1st, 2020, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Jamie Foxx was in final talks to reprise his role as Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and just a day after the article dropped, Foxx posted (now deleted) on Instagram that he’s stoked to be apart of “the new Marvel Spider-Man installment…” Foxx also stated that he won’t be “blue” in the new film, contrary to his character design in his first appearance as Electro. This. Was. Huge. Especially considering the fact that Jon Watts’ third Spider-Man wasn’t even going to happen after the now-scrapped Marvel-Sony deal. Fans were torn between theories; was Jamie Foxx going to be an entirely different Electro, or was his Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 crossing into the MCU? Those questions still remain unclear, but recently, we may have collected another piece of the puzzle.
On Dec. 8, 2020, multiple sources cited that Alfred Molina would be reprising his role as Doctor Octopus from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. This. Is. Also. Huge. Now, we have elements from each cinematic Spider-verse (except the animated one) going into this new installment. And, brace yourselves, Andrew Garfield (a.k.a. The Amazing Spider-Man) has also been reported to be in the film. Okay, this is happening. There’s no way all of these people are being casted just to make cameos; Marvel is definitely hiding/not hiding the fact that the Multiverse is on it’s way, especially with the soon-to-be-released WandaVision series on Disney+ that will focus on Scarlet Witch’s involvement with the Multiverse, and the fact that the next Doctor Strange film is going to be called “In the Multiverse of Madness.” Come on. There’s just one person that we need for this next installment: Tobey Maguire. It hasn’t been finalized yet, but with Sam Raimi signing on to direct the next Doctor Strange film (about the Multiverse) and with Doctor Strange himself set to appear in the next Spider-Man film, it’s all but confirmed at this point.
But should we really be getting our hopes up? Yes. Marvel has yet to severely disappoint fans to the point of them crying heresy, but this does seem incredibly ambitious, even for the company known for defying ambitions. It seems unlikely, but with Foxx and Molina signing on, we may just have a glimmer of hope that we’ll see Maguire, Garfield, and Holland on screen together.
