Here's Why There SHOULDN'T Be A "Spider-Man 4" With Tom Holland
So looks like they're trying to get "Spider-Man 4" off the ground. That's kind of a bizarre sentence. Two years ago, after "No Way Home" came out, I would've expected them to fast-track that project, but with Marvel being at a crossroads right now, it seems like every project is having some trouble getting started. I've given it some thought and want to carefully explain why it would be best if Marvel didn't do a "Spider-Man 4."
I'm going to avoid the obvious answers that people are expecting out of me. It'd be so lazy for me to say, "Enough with the comic book movies," or "Marvel is not good anymore, and they should stop making films" because that's easy. As long as movies exist, Marvel will exist and will continue to pump out products; I just think that they'd be better suited doing things other than another solo Spider-Man project.
I was not crazy about the ending to "Spider-Man: No Way Home." It made sense to me, but I didn't like what it represented. One thing I adored about The Infinity Saga is that it had real stakes to it. When people died, they stay dead for an extended period. I wouldn't say I liked that pretty much everything we saw in the previous three movies was undone by magic. I still think that's a little bit lame, but at the same time, I have softened up to it because it at least gave Peter Parker a legitimate arc. Anyone who complained about The character of Spider-Man losing a feel for who he was and being a part of a much greater adventure instead of just being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man had to be quiet. With any Spider-Man story, it's important to establish the fact that Peter Parker's life kind of sucks. "No Way Home" did that. If you want to bring back the character and give him another arc in ensemble films, I'd have no problem with that. I'd encourage it.
One of the big issues that Marvel has run into after "Avengers: Endgame" is that they keep trying to get bigger with every project. Some of their upcoming projects will be smaller in scale, which is a great idea. Unless you bring back Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire again, which I feel would be a little bit tacky, You'd be better suited to going back down to surface level and then building your way up to a bigger Avenger-style ensemble piece.
But the biggest reason I feel like "Spider-Man 4" is somewhat unnecessary at this point is that there's just too much Spidey going on. The Spider-Verse movies are universally loved, and the current Spider-Man video games are one of my favorite interpretations of the character ever. Do we need another reinterpretation of the symbiote saga? The video game that just came out did it perfectly. I'm usually one to encourage different versions of characters. Superheroes can be interpreted a million different ways, but we are reaching a point of oversaturation regarding Spider-Man. Also, just from a selfish standpoint, I think what Sony is attempting to do by creating a Spider-Man universe without Spider-Man is so fucking stupid, and I think Marvel would be smart to sit back and watch that universe burn to the ground as their current Spider-Man sits on the sidelines for a bit.
I'm barking up the wrong tree. "Spider-Man 4" will end up happening. It might be good. It might not be. But I'm tired of Marvel ending things only to restart them again. "No Way Home" did have some sense of finality to it. It felt like the ultimate love letter to every live-action version of the character. Miles Morales is more popular than he's ever been. I think a smarter move would be to make a Miles Morales movie with Peter Parker as a side character. I think Marvel has spent too much time focusing on characters no one cares about, but Miles Morales has become extremely popular among superhero fans. We've gotten our Peter Parker stories; give someone else a shot.