It’s more or less official that Andrew Garfield is out as Spider-Man in the wake of Marvel and Sony bringing the character back into the Marvel film stable. But it isn’t clear exactly which Spidey we’ll be getting. Cue the casting rumors!
Variety has a breakdown of what Marvel and Sony are looking for, and the short answer is that they have no idea, although that doesn’t stop Variety from bandying around names like Logan Lerman and Dylan O’Brien. They want to hire a director before they start casting Spidey, as poor Marc Webb is being shuffled off what was, by all accounts, a hellish gig for him, so everything’s on the table. The one consistent point is that they want Spider-Man to be a teenager and have a lot of high school adventures:
Sony has put the character, played by Tobey Maguire and Garfield, in Midtown High School before, but the plan is to spend more time in the setting and explore his awkward relationship with other students while fighting crime out of the classroom.
Basically, we’re seeing the return of Puny Parker. Or Meek Miles, since Sony and Marvel aren’t clear on whether they’ll be going with Parker or the Ultimate Spider-Man. Considering that Marvel is giving up and having a big ol’ DC-style reboot, which nobody thinks won’t involve bringing Miles Morales into the 616 proper, and that Marvel always realigns its comics to reflect the lineup in the movies, I would lay odds on Miles getting his day in the sun.
Of course, if they really had the balls, they’d just turn the recent Spider-Verse crossover into a Netflix series and bring in Tobey Maguire, Garfield, Nicholas Hammond, the Japanese Spider-Man, the whole bit. Hey, Emma Stone playing Spider-Gwen is a guaranteed watch for me.
