Rumors surrounding Tom Holland's Spider-Man 4 have been wildly circulating for months. Some rumors have claimed it would be a street level story including characters like Daredevil and Kingpin while other rumors stated the movie would be a multiversal adventure featuring Knull or other Spider-Men. Telling a street level Spider-Man story and telling a multiversal adventure both have the potential to form a great movie, but which would be best? Let's dive in!
Multiversal Pro - Venom
ever since Venom was announced, everyone assumed Tom Hardy and Tom Holland would come to blows at some point. When I learned Spider-Man wasn't in Venom I assumed He would be in the second movie. I was very wrong, but allowing Spider-Man 4 to be a multiversal story would give us the first meeting of Spider-Man and Venom on screen since 2007 which was, shockingly, eighteen years and two Spidey franchises ago. Unless the MCU is going to include symbiotes in its main universe, this seems to be the only way the Toms could finally fight.
Street Level Pro - A New Kind of Story
In the MCU, we haven't really had a Spider-Man movie that could be classified as street level. Spider-Man: Homecoming was the closest as Spidey is regularly taking down street thugs, but the story morphs into something with a much larger scale than where it starts. Allowing Spider-Man to exist in a story that deals with corruption, wrongdoings happening in the shadows, and possibly some moral grey area would be something we haven't seen out of Spider-Man in the MCU.
Multiversal Pro - The Spider-Men
Without a doubt, there are many fans who would love to see Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire suit back up as their own Spider-Man. I'd wager they could each get their own franchises again and fans would show up for both their movies. The dynamic between the three Peters was my favorite part of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and three Spiders made for some great action as well. No Way Home gave us little bits of information about how Andrew and Tobey's stories progressed in their own world, and another multiversal story that includes them could build on this further.
Street Level Pro - Netflix Characters
The prospect of Spider-Man assisting the characters we all thought were gone a decade or so ago when Netflix canceled their shows is on that can't be ignored. That's the beauty of Spider-Man. He can swing high in the city, almost above it, to deal with bigger, wider scale threats with the Avengers, or he can swing through the streets and be the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man helping out the little guy and the heroes who do the same. Fans were ecstatic when the rumors of Spider-Man teaming up with Daredevil to take down Kingpin swirled, and it's something I definitely still want to see.
Multiversal Pro - RDJ Doctor Doom
This one may be a con depending on how you personally view RDJ's casting as Doctor Doom, but, regardless, he is clearly here to stay. This individual moment may be better saved for Avengers: Doomsday, but it would make for a very personal story if Doom, who has the face of Peter's father figure, was the main villain. There's a lot of factors here, but, as Doomsday is coming out before Spider-Man 4, they could potentially craft a story similar to Far From Home in which the repercussions of the last Avengers movie are widely felt.
Street Level Pro - An Identity Crisis
Amy Pascal was quoted saying Peter is giving up on being Peter Parker in the next Spider-Man movie. While there have been rumors that Marvel's execs are not happy with the script, that doesn’t mean Peter won’t go through an identity crisis. Technically, this idea could play out in a multiverse story as well, but I think it would work better as a grounded story. As Peter is struggling with being completely alone, he can find new friends in a new kind of story. Giving him a familiar shoulder in the likes of Garfield or Maguire seems like an easy way out for him dealing with the new situation.
Multiversal Con - The Multiverse Itself
Right away, there are die hard MCU fans that hear “multiverse” and are put off. It's a fair response to the current state of Marvel Studios. Many of the recent project released have been less than great. The ones that have been mostly liked relied on cameos quite a bit. That's not saying the cameos were the only reasons they were good, of course, but relying on fan service isn't always the way to go.
Street Level Con - Disconnect From the MCU
It's possible that, if Spider-Man 4 is a street level story, it could feel disconnected from the rest of the MCU as it is in the Multiverse Saga. Frankly, I think this is a pretty low level concern as the story doesn't have to use the multiverse to be part of the Multiverse Saga. However, with Spider-Man 4 releasing and probably taking place after Avengers: Doomsday, it may feel off to not address whatever happens.
Ultimately, as long as the story focuses on the characters a street level or multiversal movie can make for a great fourth Spider-Man film, but, if I have to pick, I’m going with street level.
Let me know what you think in the comments!