Reassessing some Spider-Man rumors from recent months.
Okay, so now that the shitstorm over whether or not Spider-Man 3 is a Multiverse movie has apparently subsided with the confirmation from Collider that it's indeed happening, I think that now is as good a time as any to look back into a slurry of rumors that hit the web in the weeks following Jamie Foxx's casting as Electro, which threw everybody for a loop and started the speculation train.
There are two sources in particular that I want to look at: FandomWire and DanielRPK. I personally think that FandomWire is suspicious as a source in most cases, to say nothing of the controversy surrounding its EIC, but they were the first ones to break the report that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were coming back. Meanwhile, DanielRPK is fairly divisive here for the frequency of his Spider-Man posts in particular and what he's gotten wrong, but he's also correctly broken some information in the past, including one of the castings that was confirmed earlier today.
FandomWire's initial report indicated that Maguire and Garfield's roles would be confined mainly to the third act of the film, where they would team up with Tom Holland to fight an assortment of Spider-Man villains. The report also said that Doctor Strange would help facilitate the arrival of the other Spider-Men. This one had me a little suspicious considering that they explicitly said that it would be the TASM2 version of Electro rather than a new iteration of the character as Foxx himself indicated, and I thought that it would be unlikely for them to just use an ensemble-heavy battle at the end with all the villains considering that both the idea of a Sinister Six team-up and a Spider-Verse adaptation seemed unlikely for the third film at the time. The post also indicated that a spin-off starring Foxx's Electro could be on the cards.
Later, they added some new details in a subsequent report. They once again iterated that the film was going to involve a multitude of supervillains, including the likes of Kraven the Hunter (whose casting is unclear) and Scorpion (played by Michael Mando) on top of Electro. In addition, they noted that some iteration of the Green Goblin would appear, although they were unable to confirm the actor in the role (believing that either Willem Dafoe or Dane DeHaan could reprise the role). They were not able to confirm the involvement of Michael Keaton's Vulture or Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio, much less rumors about Tom Hardy's Venom. In addition, they noted that the movie will feature S.W.O.R.D. in some capacity, along with the first official mention of Oscorp in one of the MCU Spider-Man movies.
Meanwhile, DanielRPK shared a flurry of Spider-Man reports in the past few weeks:
Some script changes were done for Spider-Man 3 after the screenplays to WandaVision were completed.
Kraven and Scorpion are among the villains in the movie. (Unconfirmed, but supported by FandomWire.)
In addition to Electro, more characters used in the TASM and Raimi movies could return. (Pretty much a given.)
Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are in talks for appearances. (Half of this has been confirmed.)
Kirsten Dunst and Dane DeHaan are in discussions to appear in future movies. (Half of this has been confirmed.)
Tobey's Spider-Man would be a father at this point in his life.
Sony are interested in using Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy - as Spider-Gwen. (Her involvement is rumored.)
Tom Hardy could cameo as Venom.
Sony are interested in using Tom Holland's Spider-Man to launch spin-offs, while Marvel Studios would like the deal to keep going to the point where Spidey is one of the faces of the MCU.
And last, but not least, something fresh off the presses: the powers that be have reached out to both Dane DeHaan and Willem Dafoe to appear as their respective Green Goblins. No contracts have been signed as of yet.
Grains of salt and so on, but at this point I don't think we can just brush these things off like we did two months ago. If anyone else has any other sources that they think are worth looking at in the wake of what was announced today, feel free to add them to the comments section.