“Spider-Man 4” is coming. However, it is not yet clear whether Tom Holland will slip into the costume of the spider once again. He does have one condition.
The once infallible Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is currently in extremely difficult waters: With the exception of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3“, the other two MCU films this year fell far short of expectations: while “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” marked the starting point of MCU Phase 5 and brought Kang the Conqueror to the big screen, hardly anyone wanted to see it. Even worse was “The Marvels”, which is well on its way to becoming the first solid flop in the MCU. At the time of writing, it has grossed just 187 million US dollars worldwide (via Boxofficemojo) and is therefore still below its pure production costs of 275 million US dollars.
The misery also continues on Disney+ with the MCU series: while Loki season 2 can be considered a success, “Secret Invasion” failed mercilessly with audiences. It is significant that this series is considered one of the works that you should have seen to better understand “The Marvels”. Clearly, Disney and Marvel Studios need a real blockbuster again, a Marvel hit that reignites the enthusiasm for comic book films.
Spider-Man 4 could be just such a movie. The most recent spin-off, “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, grossed an incredible 1.92 billion US dollars, making it not only the third most successful MCU film, but also the most successful solo film by a single Marvel character. Well, Spider-Man was actually present three times in this film, appealing to three generations of cinema fans with Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland.
Nevertheless, if there’s one Marvel character who can save the MCU, it’s Peter Parker aka the friendly neighborhood spider. This was impressively underlined just this year with “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, which grossed around 690 million US dollars, almost twice as much as its predecessor “Spider-Man: A New Universe”. We also gave some thought to the possible future for Spidey in the video.
Tom Holland has apparently not yet signed on for “Spider-Man 4”
Marvel Studios and franchise producer Amy Pascal are likely to leave no stone unturned in their efforts to extend Tom Holland’s contract and secure his services for further films. If they had their way, it would probably be for a new trilogy and further appearances with the new Avengers. It would certainly be appealing for the 27-year-old. He would no longer be the youngster in the squad, but one of the experienced members that the others can look up to.
However, Holland has not yet officially signed a follow-up contract. His age has already been fulfilled. In past interviews, he has repeatedly emphasized that it is important to him to discuss why they should make another film at all. In a conversation with Collider, he now underlined this claim:
“All I can say is that we’ve had active conversations about what a fourth version of my character might look like. Whether we can find a way to do the character justice is another matter. I feel very protective of Spider-Man. I consider myself lucky that we’ve been able to work on a franchise that has gotten better with each movie, that has gotten more successful with each movie, which I think is really rare. I want to protect that legacy. I’m not going to make another movie just to have made another movie. It has to be worth it for the character.”
That sounds a lot like a consensus still hasn’t been reached and therefore no contract has been signed. Holland had also recently expressed doubts as to whether he should return as Spider-Man or pass the baton on. With the current developments in the genre, he would certainly think twice about returning. After all, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” would be a very good ending.