I've loved Spider-Man my entire life. He's been the character I've resonated with the most, a character I will always love and support. No matter the comic, movie, game whatever you want to say. So i've been there from the start, I've seen every Spider-Man movie opening night (minus spider verse due to some life stuff). I've loved all of them for one reason or another. Being the fan that I am I can see why people would love to have a live action Spider Verse movie. Hell my inner fan wants it too. But I want to discuss what kind of movie this could be, and what are some of the pros and cons of doing this movie. Especially as soon as people seem to want it to happen. If you are interested I hope you stick around, and take a little read with me.
PRO: FAN SERVICE
Let's get the obvious pro out of the way first. A movie like this would have a lot of fun fan service for people who love Tobey and Andrews Spider-Men. We could have references to Gwen Stacy, Tobeys Mary Jane, have a cute joke about J Jonah Jameson looking like the same dude in every universe. There would at least have to be one joke about Tobey not needing Webshooters. Honestly the fan service would be the biggest excuse to make a movie like this, as people have wanted to see these spider-men return for quite some time, well Tobey more than Andrew but still.
If a movie like this were to exist we would probably only have Tobey and Andrew show up, but there is always that chance for say Kirsten Dunst, Dylan Baker, Dane Dehan, or even dead characters such as Willem Dafoe Or Alfred Molina too come back, and there is the potential for it to hit harder home for people than even the original animated Spider Verse did, but there enlies one of the many balancing acts.
CON: TOO MUCH FAN SERVICE
This is something that I won't dwell on too quickly because it's pretty obvious. While a movie like this does require at least a little fan service as that is part of the fun of the story in general, it has to have a balancing act between story, and fan service, or else you dig yourself too deep into the fan service part, and while it may be fun in the moment it won't be remembered fondly like the original comic.
Story is what is most important, and there are a lot of stories they could tell with a movie like this, a story about growing into your own, a story about what kind of hero you want to be. A story about legacy, and having constant cameos from characters from older movies or cheeky references may cheapen that for some people. It's still a story they need to tell, not a greatest hits album, This is a small issue though as I'm sure Marvel Studiso and Sony would be smart enough to know this already.
PRO: THE CHEMISTRY
Another fun element of a movie like this would be the interaction between the 3 Spider-Men. Now the reason I use a gif like this from Doctor Who is cause honestly that is the kind of relationship I would expect from the three of them. Watching Day of the doctor does kind of show that that episode would be a good template for a movie like this, as opposed to a carbon copy of the animated movie.
Tom would be the goofy immature Spidey kind of relishing in the fact that there are a bunch of different Spider-Men around him, cracking jokes all the time.
Andrew would be the Spider-Man who's got a couple years under his belt, tries to be funny but knows when to be serious also, kind of fumbling a little bit here and there.
Finally Tobeys would be the more weary old Spider-Man, the one who has been doing this for 10+ years , the one who never really cracked much jokes, but who had so much loss in his time as Spider-Man he's sort of going through the motions, while also heavily criticizing his other selves.
The point I'm making with all of this is is that we could have a lot of fun seeing all of these different people who are still Spider-Man bounce off each other, Sure, Tobeys description sounds a lot like Peter B Parker from the animated movie, but it would be the one that would make the most sense given his Spider-Man, Him and Tom would be the big ones to go through a well rounded character arc. But that is where another issue could come in.
CON: SHAFTING A SPIDER-MAN
There is a lot of potential for Tobey and Toms Spider-Men. Tom could learn how important it is that he is Spider-Man, that even in a world full of other heroes his idea of Spider-Man is still strong enough to cross multi verses. It would show how strong of a hero he could truly be. While Tobey could learn that there is more than one way to be Spider-Man, that he can still enjoy the parts of Spider-Man that he enjoyed when he began, sure there's loss but he's brought a lot of good too. Notice something though? Where does that leave Andrew?
While I love Day Of The Doctor as a fun story and still think that should sort of be the template for a live action Spider-Verse movie, it does show one of the problems I have with that story, 10 and in this case Andrew are sort of just there for the ride. Not really factoring much into the story at all and not even really having a character arc. That may be fine for some people, as The Amazing Spider-Man films are very mixed in terms of their reception, some people wish they were never made, and some people love them, but it's not as unanimous as the Raimi Trilogy or the MCU Spidey.
This would still be an issue though as it would just sort of seem like Andrew is only there out of obligation, like
It's not Spider-Verse unless Andrew is there too. I feel that a movie like this should have a reason for every Spider-Man to be there, although for the life of me I can't thino of an arc Andrews Spidey could go through with how he is potrayed, although he could help with Tobey and Toms.
PRO: A FUN WAY TO TIE INTO THE MCU'S MULTIVERSE
Kevin Feige has said that the next big focus of the MCU is going to be the multiverse, as seen by the fact that we are getting a movie with Multi verse in the title for Doctor Strange. Now we're probably going to have some fun aspects of this already, like What IF, and the possibility of alternate universe versions of already established MCU characters showing up, but what better way to have some fun with it than to have characters from previous non MCU versions of these characters appear in these movies?
Having new versions from other universes of characters like Iron Man, Captain Marvel or Thor show up would be cool don't get me wrong, but a way to show how truly expansive the multi verse is would be to have characters or in this case Spider-Men who have shown up in non MCU continuity before, you could say the same for possibly having Ben Afflecks Daredevil or Eric Banas Hulk show up but the chances of those are far less likely. There is a lot of potential for this sort of movie to help build up to what will be Marvels next endgame level film, such as Secret Wars. Plus who knows maybe those Spider-Men could show up again in that film.
CON: STEALING TOMS SPOTLIGHT
Regardless of how many Spider people were to appear in a movie like this the one most important factor is that this is a story for the MCU Spider-Man, not Tobey, not Andrew. This is a story for Tom, he needs to be the one who is the focus of said story and who goes through the most character arc. While having Tobey and Andrew in the film with him would be fun, and have huge potential there is also a major risk of Tobey or Andrew completely stealing the spotlight away from Tom and making the movie about them.
If a Spider Verse movie were to be made sure Tobey and Andrews Peters should go through an arc themselves, but they should be used to enhance Toms character arc and story. I would argue a dual or three person protagionist story doesn't work in this case, these need to be supporting characters, while that may be sad for some people I personally believe this is what needs to be done to preserve the story. Toms is the Spider-Man here in the now, he's the one we'll be following so let's make sure that it's his movie first, and a huge big crossover event movie second.
FINAL CONCLUSIONS
Well those are my honest thoughts about this sort of film being developed. Would I love to see it? Sure. Do I think it will be a very very hard task to do? Absolutelty. I would honestly argue a movie like this is just as hard as Infinity War and Endgame. Can it be done? Sure, but we need the correct people behind it to get it to be a great Spider-Man film, like Into The Spider Verse was. But for now we will just wait and see if Marvel Studios and Sony ever so pull that trigger. What do you guys think? Can you think of any other pros and cons for the movies? What are your honest opinions on the whole idea. Let me know down below. And remeber..
Happy Web Slinging