Since Marvel made the announcement that they had partnered with Sony Pictures to bring Spider-Man to the Marvel cinematic universe, there has been heavy speculation over how the web-swinger would be portrayed in his third live-action incarnation. This was evidenced during the 24 hours after the character’s return when Miles Morales, the other Spider-Man, trended through the roof. After the dust settled, it became apparent that Marvel Studios most logical choice would be to first introduce the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker.
In an interview via Collider, Marvel Studios’ head Kevin Feige confirmed that it would be Peter Parker making his introduction in next year’s Captain America: Civil War.
“In terms of the age of an actor we’ll eventually to cast, I don’t know. In terms of the age of what we believe Peter Parker is, I’d say 15-16 is right.”
With those few sentences, Feige set the record straight and gave insight into the future of Spider-Man. Spider-Man is a billion dollar franchise and putting the weight of it on a real-life teenager will be tricky. That is probably the reasoning behind casting the former movies with actors in their late 20’s, in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. However, there are strong narrative reasons for Marvel’s decision to keep Parker a teen for the foreseeable future, as Feige explains.
“We want to play with Spider-Man in the high school years because frankly there’ve been five Spider-Man films and the amazing thing about it is, even though there’ve been five Spider-Man films, there are so many things from the comics that haven’t been done yet. Not just characters or villains or supporting characters, but sides to his character. The most obvious being the ‘young, doesn’t quite fit in’ kid before his powers, and then the fella that puts on a mask and swings around and fights bad guys and doesn’t shut up, which is something we want to play with and we’re excited about.”
As we enter the third phase of Marvel, there is a clear emphasis on diversifying their roster of films. We will get the first Marvel film with horror elements in Doctor Strange next year, their first film with a black lead with Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther, their first female superhero film in Captain Marvel, and now they are looking for a hero that the younger demographics can relate to. Feige explains how they plan to take the opportunity to craft a fresh take on the character.
“I think it was midway through the first film that he graduated high school. At the beginning of the second Marc Webb film, he graduated high school. And some of my favorite Spider-Man arcs and Spider-Man stories, he’s in high school for a lot of it. We want to explore that. That also makes him very, very different from any of our other characters in the MCU, which is something else we want to explore: how unique he is when now put against all these other characters.”
Each of Marvel’s solo films will probably be individually successful and will subtlety cater to specific audiences. When all of the new phase 3 characters join forces in Avengers: Infinity War, it will truly be an event film unlike any that we have seen before.
A teenage Spider-Man will stand out from the grizzled veterans of the MCU, such as Tony Stark and Captain America. It also makes sense to use him as a point of identification for the audience. He will be the wide eyed kid, proving his meddle and making sense of the carnival that is the Marvel cinematic universe. Also this fundamentally changes the character in regards to the Civil War comic book storyline. In the comics, Parker revealed his identity during the saga. Don’t expect the same thing in the MCU. However, there should be an interesting discussion at some point on the moral implications of supporting a teen risking his life, despite his skillset. These are all fresh ideas in the Spider-Man franchise, which shows the effect of the character joining Marvel’s world. In the next few weeks, we should be getting the word on who is cast as Spider-man, so be sure to keep checking back.
What do you think of the approach to Spider-Man? Let us know what you think on , , and ! Share our stories on your favorite social media below!
Source: Collider