Well, this is unexpected.
While there has been some chatter online about Alfred Molina returning as Doctor Octopus in Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures' untitled Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel, it seemed likely that was just guesswork or wishful thinking thanks to all the "Spider-Verse" speculation.
Well, apparently not! The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the actor is indeed returning as the iconic Spider-Man villain. With that, three generations of Spidey movies have been tied together.
While the focus will be on Tom Holland's Peter Parker, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 star Jamie Foxx is returning as Electro (minus the blue skin) and now this Spider-Man 2 baddie will join him.
There's no word on what sort of role Doc Ock will play in proceedings. We also don't know whether this is the same version of the character from that 2004 movie or if the actor is playing a new take on him. The latter seems likely based on J.K. Simmons' return at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, but there's clearly enough evidence now to suggest we really are visiting the "Spider-Verse."
If so, then we can only hope Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will also reprise their roles.
For now, feel free to share your Spider-Man 3 theories below!
Click on the "Next" button below to take a look at 10 unresolved plot
threads from the previous Spider-Man movies this threequel can address!
10. Green Goblin Lives
Despite being killed by his own glider in 2002's Spider-Man, Norman Osborn remained a recurring presence in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. It was hard to escape the feeling that the filmmaker was planning to resurrect the Green Goblin like the comic books had done a number of years earlier.
So, could Willem Dafoe return as this iconic bad guy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
It would be a cool move on Marvel Studios' part to head down that route, and revealing the Green Goblin as the one pulling the strings from the shadows is a plot device that never fails to work.
9. The Fallout From Gwen Stacy's Death
At the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gwen Stacy falls to her death despite the wall-crawler's attempt to save her. Peter Parker brought this on himself in some ways, especially after her father, Captain George Stacy, begged the hero to leave his daughter be in order to protect her.
Of course, just like Spidey ignored him in The Amazing Spider-Man, this sequel ended with him shrugging her death on and returning to action with no real consequences for his actions.
If he returns in this MCU-set movie, then it would make perfect sense to address the fallout from Gwen's death and the psychological impact that had on Spider-Man in the years that followed.
8. Peter Parker And Mary Jane's Relationship
Talking of romance, it would be great to see what became of the Spider-Man Universe's Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson after they appeared to finally get their happy ending in Spider-Man 3.
The last time we saw them, they were sharing a dance after Harry Osborn's tragic demise, but did their relationship pan out from there? It would be nice to think they got married and had a family, but nothing goes smoothly in the hero's life, and there could have been some major bumps in the road.
Whatever the case may be, some insight into what became of these two would be welcomed.
7. "The Untold Story"
Remember when The Amazing Spider-Man promised us "The Untold Story" of the web-slinger's superpowers? Most of that ended up on the cutting room floor, but the gist was meant to be that Peter Parker's father injected him with a secret serum that the spider bite basically activated in his system.
From there, the plan was for it to tie into Norman Osborn and Oscorp, but the idea was mostly abandoned, and we never actually got to discover what this so-called "Untold Story" was.
With Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man potentially returning in Spider-Man 3, an exploration of how each of the heroes gained their powers could be enlightening in a number of ways, with Oscorp potentially the common denominator which ties these webbed warriors together in this apparent team-up.
6. The Spider-Man Universe's Doctor Strange
Spider-Man 2 included references to Bleecker Street and a direct mention of Doctor Strange, so it's clear that some version of the Sorcerer Supreme exists in the same world as the web-slinger.
With the MCU's Stephen Strange set to play a role in 2021's Spider-Man 3, an adventure spanning the Multiverse feels like a given, as does the hero meeting his counterpart from another world.
It's hard to say who could play that Doctor Strange, but there's no denying that it would be pretty damn cool for Strange to learn that there's a version of him on every world protecting the Multiverse.
5. Did Doctor Octopus Survive?
Spider-Man 2 appeared to quite definitively show the death of Doctor Octopus, but that was something fans struggled to come to terms with, especially when Otto Octavius was such a great bad guy.
There are certainly ways he could have survived, with those arms of his potentially coming back online and pulling him out of the water. Of all the villains from Sam Raimi's trilogy, Doc Ock would be at the top of many wish lists for who should return, so perhaps Marvel can address this by bringing him back and revealing that Spidey has spent years battling one of his greatest foes.
His apparent death isn't necessarily an unresolved plot thread, but it could be made one in some way!
4. "The Man In The Shadows"
The Man in the Shadows was one of The Amazing Spider-Man's biggest talking points, especially after he appeared to teleport in and out of Dr. Curt Connors' prison cell in order to interrogate the Lizard about what he had told Peter Parker about his parents (a plot thread which, as we mentioned, didn't pan out).
Later, we would learn that Gustav Fiers was working for Norman Osborn, and willing to help Harry in his quest to assemble the Sinister Six and kill Spider-Man for his genetically altered blood.
Sadly, Michael Massee died a few years ago, but there are other ways this character's role in the "Spider-Verse" could be addressed. Perhaps he's some sort of demonic or mystical entity?
3. Was Bruce Campbell Really Mysterio?
Bruce Campbell popped up as different characters in each of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies, while concept art has revealed that he was supposed to play Mysterio in Spider-Man 4.
That was only meant to be a silly cameo, but this is something Marvel Studios can take and have fun with in Spider-Man 3 (or, if needs be, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). Picture this: Peter arrives on a different Earth, comes face to face with this Mysterio, and takes him down thinking it's his Quentin Beck before realising it's just some bozo wearing a ridiculous costume!
Despite being a throwaway moment, it's one fans of this franchise would definitely appreciate.
2. Norman Osborn's Severed Head
This ended up being a deleted scene, but the aforementioned Gutav Friers was meant to be shown reporting to Norman Osborn's severed head - in a jar - beneath the bowels of Oscorp.
The plan in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was for a serum to be created which would resurrect the dead, with George Stacy set to return, along with a Norman we're assuming would be a full-blown monstrous Green Goblin. It sounds dumb as hell, and something we're glad didn't become a reality.
Despite that, it would certainly be interesting for a visit to this world to shed some light on what Sony had planned, even if it's in a tongue in cheek way which points out how wacky all that actually is.
1. Sinister Six Assembles
At the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, we learned that Oscorp had created a number of weapons, including a massive Rhino suit (for some reason, the Venom symbiote spotted in trailers was cut).
That movie would reveal that the Sinister Six set to assemble in the spinoff movie Drew Goddard was working on was likelu going to feature the Green Goblin and the Rhino, and four formidable new additions: Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Vulture, and Mysterio.
This is one of the sequel's biggest dangling plot threads, and if it's true Dane DeHaan is coming back as the Green Goblin, what if he ends up assembling some sort of interdimensional version of the team?