There was a ripple across the Spider-Verse recently as Sony Pictures pushed back the anticipated release of the animated double feature Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse by half a year. By delaying the movie from October 7 of this year to June 2, 2023, Sony broke the bad news that there will be no more Spider-Man stories reaching the big screen for the remainder of 2022. Additionally, this makes Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter movie the next feature in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, arriving in theaters almost a full year after Jared Leto’s Morbius opened to tepid reviews. As Sony begins to shuffle its decks, the only question that we have in the wake of these announcements is: Does the affect a fourth Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland in the lead?
The answer is, “Probably.” We have no official confirmation from either Sony or Marvel that another Tom Holland Spider-Man movie will even happen. Though, after Spider-Man: No Way Home broke box office records and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige assured fans that development on a fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man movie already had begun, the news on such sequel has gone dry. So far, Tom Holland has appeared in three Spider-Man movies, and they have all been in theaters separated by two years (2017, 2019, and 2021). Now that the dust is settling, it’s highly unlikely that Sony gets a live-action Spider-Man movie prepped and ready for a 2023 release date… especially given the other bit of news that was part of Sony’s announcement.
Dakota Johnson has been cast as Madame Web in a planned spinoff movie for the Marvel Comics character. And Sony just announced that Johnson’s film, which co-stars Euphoria standout Sydney Sweeney, is arriving in theaters on July 7, 2023 – just a month after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One opens on June 2. Factor in Kraven and its January 2023 release, and a fourth Spidey movie would be overkill. It’d also dilute the market for Sony, which no doubt wants the next Tom Holland Spider-Man movie to have ample run up to its opening for marketing needs.
A while back, Sony did circle an October 2023 date for an untitled Marvel movie. At the time, Venom 3 with Tom Hardy made sense in that spot. The studio didn’t mention any concrete plans for the October 2023 date… or if they still plan to PUT a movie out in October 2023. Sony did jump ahead to 2024, though, when it announced that Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse Part Two would open on March 29, 2024.
My best guess is that we won’t see a fourth Spider-Man starring Tom Holland until after March 2024. To begin with, Holland has stated a desire to take a break from acting once he wraps on the new AppleTV+ series he’s currently filming. However, Uncharted 2 and his Spider-Man duties could make that hiatus short-lived. But also, when you look at the slate of upcoming Marvel movies that already have been announced and dated, the MCU is booked through July 2023, when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens. And Kevin Feige needs to sort out release dates for Blade, Fantastic Four, Deadpool 3, Captain America 4, and Shang-Chi 2. And those are just the titles that have been confirmed!
No, it sounds like the delays for Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, as well as the dating of Madame Web, ensures that Sony has an ample amount of Spidey-adjacent content to keep them going until 2024, which could give Tom Holland enough time to rest, recharge, and then figure out the new direction for Peter Parker given the devastating ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Just, don’t push it back to 2025, OK? We need our “Holland as Peter” fix sooner than that.
