Andrew Garfield Likely Returning As Spider-Man To Fight Venom, Sinister Six

[Shark_Blade]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhug...-sinister-six/

The enormous box office success of the billion-plus grossing Spider-Man: No Way Home — despite a raging pandemic with a new variant sweeping the world and sending hospitalization rates climbing again — has Marvel talking Oscars and fans talking Andrew Garfield. And it now seems likely Garfield will return as Spider-Man in Sony’s Spiderverse spinoff corner of the multiverse alongside Venom, Morbius, Lizard, and possibly other Marvel villains. Spoilers ahead, so tread lightly!

It remains to be seen how much merger of the multiverse will take place, and whether it will incorporate Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Sandman into a new shared reality. But it seems certain that two post-credit scenes in Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home show (respectively) Eddie Brock/Venom being pulled into the MCU’s reality and discovering Spider-Man’s existence, and later realizing there’s a larger universe out there full of people and creatures that are shocking to Brock, before Brock/Venom are pulled back out of the MCU to somewhere else.

We are meant to presume everyone returned to their own original version of reality, but that clearly won’t be the case. The multiverse is all messed up now. It cracked, and entities from different universes crossed boundaries into the wrong space and time. So what does this mean?

We know it will get out of control and threaten all of existence in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. We know Venom and Morbius are destined to meet Spider-Man. We know Venom left a piece of himself in the MCU, meaning a different Venom specific to the MCU will show up in that universe instead of the current version of Venom in solo films. We know No Way Home was a huge hit proving multiverse, nostalgia, and big villain team-ups against superhero team-ups can be crowd-pleasing to the tune of $1+ billion. We know Sony has still not given up on their desire for a big Sinister Six movie. We know Andrew Garfield wants to return as Spider-Man. And we know fans and a lot of mainstream audiences now seem to like that idea.

I’ve long been a big fan of Garfield’s Spider-Man, not only loving his first Amazing Spider-Man but also insisting in my review that his Amazing Spider-Man 2 was always underrated, that his personality as Spider-Man in costume was the most faithful to the comics, that Garfield and Emma Stone had the best chemistry and sparks of any on-screen superhero romance, that Jamie Foxx’s Electro was smartly inspired by Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man protagonist, and that some day everyone would look back and reevaluate ASM2 and Garfield’s exceptional, emotionally riveting performance.

Two of the finest character moments of any superhero movie — and of Spider-Man films specifically — take place in ASM2. The first is when bullies pick on a little boy because of his science project and Spider-Man shows up to defend the boy and walks him home. It’s a touching scene, for sure. But at the film’s end, the same little boy is the only person to step forward and challenge Rhino in the streets of New York, dressed in a Spidey halloween costume. It’s already a powerful emotional moment, and then Spider-Man himself arrives, thanks the boy for holding down the fort, and tells the kid, “I’ll take it from here,” and it’s hanky time.

That’s what Spider-Man is all about, folks.

It only took seven years, but at least everyone is catching up to part of those truths. Namely, that Garfield is in fact a great Spider-Man/Peter Parker and deserves more credit — and deserves another shot.

Cue No Way Home, the multiverse, and all those Spidey villains getting tossed around into their own single shared corner of reality alongside Garfield’s wall-crawler.

With Tom Hardy’s Venom, Jared Leto’s Morbius, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman, Foxx’s Electro, Paul Giamatti’s Rhino, and Rhys Ifans’ Lizard, that’s more than enough to comprise a Sinister Six, even if no other new villains show up. There are also hints of Vulture existing in the other universes — Michael Keaton’s flying scavenger from the MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming pops up in the Morbius trailer, implying some version of him also exists in Sony’s separate Spiderverse.

What complicates things is the fact many of these villains were “cured” in No Way Home. Then again, these same villains have been conflicted and waver between the angel on one shoulder, or the devil on the other. Venom for example is more an anti-hero at this point in the films, and Morbius appears to be either a villain protagonist or a reluctant anti-hero as well.

Likewise, Sandman was always treated as a low-level criminal whose superpowers were mostly used to try to fix his own life and help his little girl, as opposed to outright villainy.

Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Lizard were all scientists with good intentions who loose control of themselves because of their powers, but who want to be good people if they can avoid transforming into their evil selves.

Only Electro, Vulture, and Rhino seemed to crave their power and acted eager to use it for selfish, greedy purposes that didn’t require any mental manipulations or loss of self-control due to their “powers.” So they seem most likely to be outright villains again if/when given a chance. Now add in the potential for Michael Mando’s Scorpion (who first appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming, but not as his costumed self yet). That’s four outright villains who could form the basis of a Sinister Six.

From there, it’s a question of whether Venom and Morbius are the final two members of the bad guy team-up against Spider-Man, or whether they’ll initially fight Spidey and then wind up teaming up with the webslinger to help him overcome the other villains. Or perhaps Lizard, Dock Ock, or Green Goblin will once again gain powers and lose control of themselves, leading to their membership in the Sinister Six.

There are many combinations and explanations for how the supervillain team comes to be, and who will sign up. The bottom line is, there is a large pool of characters and we might see any number of them — perhaps all, in fact — in the inevitable crossover event.

Who will they face? Well, obviously the point of this article is that they’ll face Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man. It would essentially be a reboot of the Amazing Spider-Man franchise/universe, or possibly a merged reboot of both the ASM series and the original Sam Raimi series.

Think a moment about the full implications of that. Could Toby Maguire also make an appearance in this film, too? Could the multiverse mess result in those two worlds crashing into one another and merging together, so there are two Spider-Men to confront the Sinister Six? And maybe the Sinister Six has backup players on the bench to step in when some members fall or change sides (such as Venom and Morbius, for example, and/or maybe Doc Ock as well).

Perhaps what we’ll see is a Venom-Spider-Man crossover first, or with Morbius also added to that mix. That would be a billion dollar movie all by itself, obviously. Which allows a follow-up film sporting the Sinister Six, another potential/likely billion dollar hit if the right combination is achieved (I suspect it would need Venom to make another appearance, maybe teaming up with Spidey this time).

Whatever the specific details and nuances, the bottom line is Andrew Garfield is all but certain to return as Spider-Man, giving Sony the best of both worlds — they get to stay part of the MCU and retain their deal with Marvel Studios to share Spider-Man, while also having a separate standalone Spidey series of films as they planned in the past. If that also includes a return for Emma Stone as Spider-Gwen, as some fan sites claim.

Note: Although you should rightly be skeptical of clickbait claims from certain fan sites, Spider-Gwen’s arrival in the series is not a hard guess to make at this point, in light of the character’s popularity and previous intent on Sony’s part to develop her into a film character. On the other hand, the loss of Gwen is among the most important events in Peter/Spidey’s life, and in No Way Home Garfield’s character was mercifully given a second chance and cathartic hero moment when he saves Zendaya’s MJ from the same fate Gwen suffered in ASM2.

Andrew Garfield was a wonderful Spider-Man, he wants to return, and we all mostly want him to return. Sony wanted him to return, too, and now they have every reason to make it happen. There are certainly already plenty of rumblings behind the scenes to suggest it’s going to happen.

So if fans and the press continue to bang the drum and if Sony succeeds in assembling all of the right pieces, then it’s going to happen, and it has the chance of being far better than whatever Sony originally planned with the Sinister Six. And I for one can’t wait to see Garfield return for it.

[Andrew NDB]

"already plenty of rumblings behind the scenes to suggest it’s going to happen."

In other words, there isn't any news and this is all a speculation piece.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

"already plenty of rumblings behind the scenes to suggest it’s going to happen."

In other words, there isn't any news and this is all a speculation piece.

Literally the entire Internet, every single day.

[AquaParade]

Yeah, but I have to admit, the headline makes it seem like more than an opinion piece.

Which again, is the internet, everyday. But still, the article annoyed me as well.

[Leo656]

I'm more annoyed by people who post a link to an article AND THEN POST THE ENTIRE F*CKING ARTICLE. STOP DOING THAT SH*T, PICK ONE OR THE OTHER GOD DAMMIT.

Posting a link and then cherry-picking a few choice quotes, fine. This? This is Not Okay.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'm more annoyed by people who post a link to an article AND THEN POST THE ENTIRE F*CKING ARTICLE. STOP DOING THAT SH*T, PICK ONE OR THE OTHER GOD DAMMIT.

Posting a link and then cherry-picking a few choice quotes, fine. This? This is Not Okay.

It's a catch-22. People posting links to $#!(bag articles actually helps the $#!(bag publisher by driving click traffic to their $#!(bag site based on a click bait, rage bait headline or whatever.

[neatoman]

Wheter or not this actually happens, I'm pretty sure Sony are going to try to wrestle with Disney for the rights as hard as they can. Just look at the box office for the last movie, does anyone really believe the two corporate giants are just fine with just sharing something that juicy?

They decided to split the upcoming animated movie in two and they have had a Morbius movie ready to go for a while now. We know for a fact that they are already prepping to shoot a Kraven movie. One of their planned projects is a movie starring Nightwatch, a character I have only heard about because they announced his movie. Silk is even getting her own TV show.

Is there a possibility that TASM 3, or Spider-Man vs Venom, or Spider-Man and Venom vs the Sinister Six, or whatever the hell else they could end up calling this thing never actually happens? Sure, most of the concepts Sony has planned for the Spider-Man license will most likely never get beyond pre-production. But it's obvious that they really, really, really want to keep the license for as long as possible, which means some of these projects need to get made.