The MCU’s current Peter Parker, Tom Holland, has been talking about the prospect of playing Spider-Man for a fourth time.
We’ve had three standalone Spider-Man films so far, with Tom Holland playing Peter Parker. And with Marvel Studios steering the ship and Sony Pictures (the rights holders to the character) taking a step back, it’s been a really fun ride.
The final moments of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home (which, let us remind you made almost $2bn during its box office run) either serve as a fitting capstone to Holland’s time as the webslinger, or perfectly set up new adventures featuring a version of Spider-Man that is very familiar to audiences.
Whatever that next film looks like, it doesn’t appear to be on a fast track, with Holland stating after No Way Home that he wanted a rest from the character. Hopefully, Sony and Marvel are also learning the value of resting these properties, and as such, it sounds like any progress on a sequel is in the early stages.
Collider caught up with Holland, and the actor did have this to say about another film in the series: “All I can say is that we have been actively engaging in conversations about what it could potentially look like for a fourth rendition of my character. Whether or not we can find a way to do justice to the character is another thing.”
Read more: Spider-Man: No Way Home review | Exhilarating, messy, fan-pleasing
Holland went on to add: “I feel very protective over Spider-Man. I feel very, very lucky that we were able to work on a franchise that got better with each movie, that got more successful with each movie, which I think is really rare, and I want to protect his legacy.”
Whether you agree with Holland’s take on each film being better than its predecessor or not, his point still stands: Jon Watts’ Spider-Man trilogy achieves that relatively rare trilogy feat of putting out three films without one letting the side down.
Holland, then, is adamant that he’ll only do another if they can maintain that quality: “So, I won’t make another one for the sake of making another one. It will have to be worth the while of the character. But that said, if we can figure that out, I would be a fool not to put the suit back on again because I owe everything to Spider-Man. I love the character and the people I get to work with. So, I would love to tell another story, but I’ll only tell it if we can find the right one.”
Given that Marvel will be keen for Holland’s version of the character to appear in its upcoming Avengers films – which are a few years away yet – the idea of him not returning to Peter Parker is pretty inconceivable. When it comes to Spidey-centric stories, though, the ‘right one’ would surely have to be the induction of Miles Morales’ Spider-Man into the MCU proper. We’ve seen the terrific animated Spider-Verse films flirt with this idea; we’ve seen Insomniac’s brilliant video game series do it. All that’s left now is for Sony and Marvel Studios to take that leap of faith. We’ll bring you more on Tom Holland’s return as Spider-Man when we hear it.
