Spider-Man 3 Is Surely Repeating Sony’s Multiple Villain Issue

Jamie Foxx's casting in Spider-Man 3 means the MCU will suffer from the same multiple villain problem as Sony's Spider-Man franchises. Despite how well Sony and Marvel Studios have done to make Tom Holland's web-slinger a huge improvement on The Amazing Spider-Man movies, it seems the same issue that derailed them (and also Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3) is once again on the cards for the third MCU Spidey stand-alone.

Both Raimi's and Marc Webb's Spider-Man sequels suffered because they aimed too high in terms of bringing in multiple villains, either to cater to the studio's desires (in the case of the former) or to set up wider Spider-Verse films (in the case of the latter). Neither Spider-Man 3 nor The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are irredeemable, and in fact, Foxx's tortured performance as Electro had its moments, amongst the messy bombast, but both's failings were very specifically tied to the spread focus of too many characters pulling attention.

With the addition of Electro to the MCU - in a shocking turn of events, no less - Jon Watts' sequel runs the risk of repeating the sins of the past, given that his Spider-Man 3 already has too many villainous loose ends. Even without adding a whole new villain - as has been rumored with the likes of Kraven mentioned - the film already has three villains to balance.

A screenshot of Peter stunned at an incoming drone strike in Spider-Man: Far From Home

Assuming Electro's casting is more than just a post-credits stinger teasing him for the Sony Spider-Verse (which would most likely have been kept secret), Tom Holland's Spider-Man will face off against J Jonah Jameson, Michael Mando's Scorpion (because he cannot just be forgotten about again) and Electro himself. JJJ is a different sort of presence, of course, but there's also the very real possibility that he is working with someone bigger behind him - like a Norman Osborn or a Kingpin - who would stand to gain from Spider-Man's removal from New York. That's a lot of dynamics to have to balance and it's something Sony have failed before.

Even without that new addition, having Peter Parker dealing with the fallout of Mysterio's revelation at the end of Far From Home would have been a significant enough story in its own right, and having Mando's Scorpion following up on his promise for vengeance once he knew Parker's identity would have made sense. To throw Electro into the mix, without any grounding at all, other than the vague suggestion of him arriving thanks to the Multiverse (or worse just being an entirely new version of Electro, nonsensically) threatens taking focus away from the most important plot-line.

Sony's precedent with front-loading Spider-Man movies with villains is arguably one of the most infamous cases of studio interference in comic book movie history. The insistence on using Venom in Raimi's Spider-Man 3 against the director's better judgment led to a messy, unsatisfying climax that took three components with great potential and half-baked them all. With The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the issue was more that the studio attempted to seed future spin-offs, and the long-planned Sinister Six movie and the execution of that film's multiple villains likewise felt under-nourished. The idea of the MCU going the same way is tragic.

The only possible way Marvel and Sony can get around this is to go back to one of the biggest MCU mistakes of previous years and treat Scorpion like Baron Von Strucker was dealt with Avengers: Age Of Ultron. His first act dismissal was a bitter pill to swallow, but it at least tidied up some loose ends and while it would be an insult to an actor of Mando's ability, it seems logical unless Spider-Man 3 is legitimately going to deliver on the Sinister Six set-up Sony seem to have been desperate to pull-off for years now. Even then, it will take Herculean effort to make sure the film avoids those same old over-stuffing issues.

Next: MCU: Every Villain Rumored For Spider-Man 3 (& Who It Should Be)