Fans of the OGÂ Spider-Man trilogy, starring Tobey Maguire, received a massive jolt of excitement earlier this week when news broke of a potential fourth film in the franchise. Before we get to that, I need to stress that potential is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this sentence, and it’s only meant in the most hypothetical sense at this point. That said, one man is trying his hardest to get something moving behind the scenes, and he might have the right pedigree to pull it off. Let’s talk about it.
Mattson Tomlin, who is the co-writer of Matt Reeves’ The Batman films, is trying to get a fourth film going in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man franchise, where we would see Peter Parker trying to be a father, family man, and a hero all at once. He’s already broached the subject on social media before, and now he’s added more fuel to the speculative fire with his most recent answer to a fan who asked for a follow-up on his progress thus far.
https://x.com/mattsontomlin/status/1950715051003768923
This time around, Tomlin said that he’s earnest about this project, and he has yet to be informed that he should abandon it, as it’s just not going to happen. In other words, he hasn’t been given a “no” by anyone to whom he’s mentioned this. That said, he cautioned against getting excited about this, as it would be a long way off, if it ever happened, and he wouldn’t be able to say much about it if he did receive a “yes.”
https://x.com/mattsontomlin/status/1982284859184742713
Tomlin wants to bring back the principles from that film with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst reprising their roles as Peter and Mary Jane, respectively. As you can imagine, this got a lot of fans going. Ever since they showed back up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans have been champing at the bit to see another film with either Maguire or Andrew Garfield, who played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the rebooted Amazing Spider-Man franchise Sony attempted after the Maguire franchise had run its course.
There’s honestly no reason why Sony couldn’t do these films. They have the rights to them, and it would allow them to do another Spider-Man project that they would control. Furthermore, they wouldn’t have to share the merchandising haul with Disney. The same goes for another film with Garfield. Sony has shown they can write an amazing Spider-Man film with the animated Spider-Verse.
There’s also the fact that DC is doing something similar with Batman in their newly relaunched DCEU under James Gunn and Peter Safran. They have the Matt Reeves and Tomlin version of The Batman, and you have the upcoming Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which Gunn is still trying to cast. IGN first mentioned this, and I agree since Sony is, in a sense, already doing it with the MCU and the animated films.
All in all, I hope Tomlin can get this done. While I may not have loved The Batman, I did appreciate what they were trying to do. I think Tomlin is a solid writer, and I would love to see his take on Spider-Man, especially with a more relatable storyline about being a husband and a father. It’s a time-honored tradition, and an easy sell. I truly hope he’s able to pull this off because I know I would love to see it and review it. Should it happen, you know BSO will be there, suited and booted.
