MCU's Spider-Man Can Never Be A Friendly Neighborhood Hero (& That Sucks)

A brand new Spider-Man trilogy is in the works, but despite this, Tom Holland's Peter Parker will more likely never be able to be a friendly-neighborhood hero. Before Spider-Man: No Way Home even hits theaters, the wall-crawler's fate in the MCU has already been confirmed when producer Amy Pascal announced that Sony will continue their Spider-Man partnership with Marvel Studios beyond the upcoming threequel. However, although an ongoing Spider-Man saga is exciting news, the character's prominent place in the MCU means that future films will in all likelihood continue to ignore a central aspect of what makes Spider-Man so iconic.

Holland debuted his superhero role in Captain America: Civil War in 2016 — just a year after Marvel Studios and Sony struck a partnership to share the character's rights temporarily. Since then, the actor played the role four more times, two in his solo films, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the other two via Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Now, he's poised to take on his biggest personal mission yet as he battles multiversal villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Directed by Jon Watts, the movie will tie together all three Spider-Man franchises and function as the culmination of MCU's trilogy.

While Holland's Spider-Man has been largely well-received, his iteration has been criticized on several counts. Some don't like how his story has been highly dependent on his relationship with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). This is something that the new Spider-Man trilogy can address as Peter continues his hero's journey. Another issue some fans have with the character's depiction is that he wasn't really able to be the street-level hero that he was known for in the comics. The closest Peter got to this was fighting Vulture (Michael Keaton) in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Stark told him to stick with being a "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man," but he was more than eager on becoming an Avenger than going after grounded villains. He did turn down the offer to be one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes at the end of the movie, but the circumstances in Avengers: Infinity War forced him to step up and be an Avenger in the fight against Thanos (Josh Brolin). While seeing Spidey fight to save the universe is rewarding on some level, this high-stakes action actually misses an essential aspect of what makes the character so relatable.

Peter was snuffed out of existence from the decimation and was only resurrected with half of the population after five years in Avengers: Endgame. By Spider-Man: Far From Home, the young hero was in the process of grieving the death of his mentor Iron Man when he was roped in by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) into dealing with Mysterio's (Jake Gyllenhaal) fake Elementals. This was the first time Spider-Man learned about the concept of the multiverse. Although Quentin Beck turned out to be lying about coming from a different universe, Spider-Man: No Way Home confirms the multiverse’s existence. Looking back, there's a clear progression to Peter's missions in the MCU starting in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and at this point, considering everything that he's been through, it's difficult to imagine him going after small-time crooks in Queens.

The good news is, Marvel Studios can still tackle Peter's time as a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, albeit in a different media format. It's been announced that an animated series titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year is coming to Disney+ which will tackle Peter's first year in high school. This offers the MCU a chance to dive into the character's origins, as well as, his early days coming to terms with his newfound powers before he came into contact with Iron Man. This has the potential to satisfy the character's street-level origins, while simultaneously placing him in world-threatening scenarios on the big screen.

More: Spider-Man's New MCU Trilogy Is Bad News For No Way Home