When Marvel Studios teamed with Sony Pictures and agreed to share Spider-Man, the decision was quickly made to focus on villains the web-slinger hadn't faced on screen before.
Spider-Man: Homecoming featured Shocker and The Vulture and even set the stage for Scorpion's eventual debut by introducing Mac Gargan. Spider-Man: Far From Home shifted focus to Mysterio, only for Spider-Man: No Way Home to pit Tom Holland's Peter Parker against the baddies from previous Spider-Man movies.
The MCU hero battled Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and The Lizard; however, as exciting as that was for fans, it seemingly closed the door on new versions of those baddies appearing on Earth-616.
Heck, Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn even confirmed his Variant doesn't exist on that world!
Now, though, scooper Alex Perez claims Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus "will be, if not, the final villains Holland’s Spider-Man faces when his time as Spider-Man comes to an end."
He doesn't clarify whether those would be the Variants played by Dafoe and Alfred Molina or completely new versions of each character; with Avengers: Secret Wars supposedly set to softly reboot the MCU, it would be easy to make subtle changes to Spidey's world.
Then again, it's possible Norman was lying about not having an Earth-616 doppelganger to stop Peter Parker from searching for him and ensuring he never becomes the Green Goblin. Either way, Spidey clashing with The Goblin and Doc Ock again is an exciting prospect.
"If everything was right, sure," Dafoe previously said of possibly playing Norman again. "I mean, that's a great role. I liked the fact that it's a double role both times. Twenty years ago, and fairly recently, both times [were] very different experiences, but I had a good time on both."
Alongside Tom Holland, Zendaya is expected to reprise her role as MJ in Spider-Man 4. Sydney Sweeny is rumoured to be playing Black Cat, and we're anticipating Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Paul Rudd making appearances as Daredevil, The Kingpin, and Ant-Man.
As for who could direct Spider-Man 4, plenty of names are floating around online. Among them are Justin Lin, Drew Goddard and, most recently, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire helmer Adam Wingard.
In terms of plot details, those are few and far between; the latest rumour to have surfaced suggests the plan is to pit Spidey against The Kingpin's goons, including Shocker and The Scorpion. The latter would acquire the Venom symbiote introduced in Spider-Man: No Way Home, only for Peter Parker to eventually don the alien suit.
Spider-Man 4 doesn't currently have a release date.