With the announcement of the Venom film, and Sony’s plans to create a self-contained Spider-Verse around the wallcrawler with Black Cat and Silver Sable films, the studios opens up a world of possibilities for potential films. A multiverse of ideas in fact.
Here we list a handful of films from the Spider-Verse that could make this tiny version of a cinematic universe something more than the most recent successor to DC’s Catwoman and Steel.
Spider-Gwen
As the runaway hit of the Spider-Verse event, and the most recent addition to the Spider-Verse, this is a no-brainer. Created in 2014 by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez, it’s set in an alternative Earth where Gwen Stacy was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker. The beauty of this character is that they don’t even have to recast: they could conceivably use a parallel Earth’s Emma Stone as the lead, opening the door for crossovers with previous versions of Spider-Man in all forms. (See our Spider-Verse dream below).
Spider-Man 2099
Created during the height of the comic book boom of the 1990s, this is a version of Spider-Man that has over 3 decades of history. Created by Peter David and Rick Leonardi in 1992 for the Marvel 2099 comic book line, the plot would focus on Miguel O’Hara: a geneticist who gains spider-like abilities during an accident while attempting to recreate the abilities of the original Spider-Man. Several comics feature Miguel meeting the original Peter Parker, and more recent comics had him stranded in the present day. However, the future setting would be a perfect way to continue the Spidey saga on screen and still give viewers a point of difference.
Spider-Woman
Jessica Drew’s history is a complicated one, and her cinematic rights may be just as tricky to get our heads around. Her background features double-agent status on the side of HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D., placing her firmly in Marvel Studio’s camp, but the ‘Spider’ moniker may still see her in Sony’s domain on a technicality. Rumoured to be in consideration for production for a while now, it wouldn’t be Drew’s first time on screen. She was the star of her own short lived animated series in the 1970s, voiced by Joan Van Ark.
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man
Another parallel world Spider-Man, this is the one that actually seems to be happening. Once upon a time, Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) was leaning in hard to play the character, and he did on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series in 2015. It was announced in January this year that an animated film featuring Mile Morales would be coming out from Sony at the end of next year. Written by Phil Lord and executive produced by Lord and regular collaborator Chris Miller, it brings aboard director Bob Persichetti (The Little Prince) and Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians).
Spider-Verse
It may take a few films to get there, but if we’re going to do the ultimate fantasy wishlist, let’s go for broke. The 2014-2015 Spider-Verse event claimed to have “Every Spider-Man ever” in print, even including the 1967 animated version, Spider-Ham and Japanese Spider-Man’s Leopardon in the line-up. We propose going one step further, and have Sony acknowledge every live action version of Spider-Man in the process, from the early cartoons through to Nicholas Hammond’s 1970s version, Andrew Garfield and beyond. Hell – Hammond or Maguire could play the father figure to May “Mayday” Parker a.k.a. Spider-Girl. Or Andrew Garfield in a dance-off with Spider-Man 3‘s jazz emo Spider-Man. The possibilities are endless.
