Unfortunately, 2020 was a slow year for many industries due to the pandemic restrictions enforced because of COVID. However, there was still a plethora of news released about Spider-Man. The MCU is adding another movie to the Spider-Man story thread, and other franchises are adding onto their series as well.
With all this fresh news, it’s hard not to get excited for what’s to come. It may be true that 2020 didn’t bring a lot of great things, but it did bring ten great things for Spider-Man. In the coming years, the events of 2020 will still have a powerful impact on Spider-Man across the board.
10 A Sequel To Into The Spider-Verse Is Coming
Fans were pleasantly surprised that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was an absolutely phenomenal film. Many saw the movie in theaters multiple times, which spurred the creators to want to make more of this story, continuing on from the original film. In June of 2020, the Into the Spider-Verse sequel officially went into production.
Soon afterwards, Sony announced that the sequel would eventually be released in October of 2022 due to further delays caused by the pandemic. While it will take some time and a great deal of work to produce this sequel, it will be well worth it.
9 Marisa Tomei Is Returning As Aunt May
Marisa Tomei is one of the most beautiful actresses of our time. She’s the perfect age to play the Aunt May to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, and she’s such a talented actress that fans were hoping she would keep returning to the MCU. It was announced in June of 2020 that Marisa Tomei would, in fact, be returning to the MCU as Aunt May.
She hoped to see Aunt May’s story continuing as it had been before. While she doesn’t have any comments on May and Tony Stark’s flirtations, the fact that Tony is officially deceased does open up her dating options a bit moving forward.
8 Jon Watts Will Direct The Sequel
The director of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Jon Watts, was confirmed in June of 2020 to be returning to the Spider-verse. Jon Watts is meant to be directing the third movie in the trilogy, announced alongside Marisa Tomei’s confirmation that she would be returning as Aunt May.
As a side note, in December of 2020, Kevin Feige announced that Jon Watts would not only be directing the new Spider-Man, but also the new Fantastic Four movie. Jon Watts will be introducing Marvel’s First Family to the MCU, but as fans enjoyed Spider-Man: Homecoming, they’re optimistic he will do well this time, too.
7 Tom Holland Released News On Sequel Development
There was a lot of casting news coming out in 2020, but not a lot of actual production was being done moving forward on any of the films. Of course, this makes sense as COVID and the pandemic restrictions have made it close to impossible to keep working. However, Tom Holland did let something slip in 2020, as is his way.
Tom Holland famously lets little bits of information slip that Disney and Marvel would rather keep quiet. It did seem, though, that he was allowed to say that production on the new Spider-Man movie would be beginning in late 2020 and continuing through the new year.
6 Ned Leeds And Flash Thompson Will Be Back
Not only is Marisa Tomei returning to the MCU, but a few other fan favorites will be reprising their roles in the Spider-Man strain of the universe. Tony Revolori, who plays Flash Thompson, and Jacob Batalon, who plays Ned Leeds, were both announced to be returning to the MCU in 2020. With the loss of Tony Stark, Peter is going to need to have his friends around him. Moving forward, not only will Michelle be important for Peter, but so will Flash and Ned, as well.
5 Dr. Strange Is Involved With Spider-Man Now
A lot of the news coming out of the many Spider-Man movies in production right now is familiar news. The announcements that roles would be reprised are exciting, but not unexpected. However, in early October of 2020, a surprising casting announcement was made in addition to these reprisals. As Jacob Batalon was confirmed to return to the MCU in Spider-Man, so, too, was Benedict Cumberbatch.
This shocked fans, as Benedict Cumberbatch plays Dr. Stephen Strange, and will continue to do so. Fan speculation surrounding the movie now expects that the film will somehow be included in Dr. Strange’s adventures in the multiverse.
4 There Will Be A Multiverse In The MCU
The news about the new Spider-Man movie including Dr. Strange had fans on edge. Learning in 2020 that the new Dr. Strange movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, would be exploring other universes made fans eager to see how this tied into the new Spider-Man movie.
Additional casting announcements made this even more clear, and with the introduction of actors from past Spider-Man universe trilogies, fans realized exactly what Marvel was doing. The MCU is now clearly introducing the concept of the multiverse, and Spider-Man just may be their prototype to test things out.
3 Bringing Back Old Villains
Early in autumn of 2020, another surprising casting announcement was made. While many actors reprising their roles were from Tom Holland’s timeline, this autumnal casting was something a little out of left field. Jamie Foxx was announced to be returning to the MCU — even though he’s never been in it. Jamie Foxx previously played Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 while the property was still being rebooted over at Sony. This announcement only confirmed the theory for fans that the multiverse would be introduced in the new Spider-Man movie.
2 Filming Finally Began On The Spider-Man Sequels
Any production at the beginning of 2020 was halted, and some of it began to slowly pick up again throughout the year. One of the movies that had its delayed start take off in 2020 was the still untitled Spider-Man sequel. In October of 2020, principal photography began with the main cast, including Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon. This principal photography had meant to start in July, but the fact that it began at all is impressive. Benedict Cumberbatch had joined the cast by late November, and was working on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that same month.
1 Multiple Spider-Men Have Been Announced
The excitement following casting news like that of Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, and Benedict Cumberbatch was hard to measure up to, but then little bits of even more intriguing news started creeping down the grapevine. By December of 2020, it was confirmed that many other actors from other Spider-Man timelines would be returning, including Alfred Molina and Kirsten Dunst, who played Doctor Otto Octavius (or Dr. Octopus) and Mary Jane Watson respectively in the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy.
This indicated to fans that all three trilogies would be involved in this new movie. After that, it was announced that Andrew Garfield, who played Peter Parker himself in The Amazing Spider-Man movies from Sony, would be in the movie. It’s likely that Tobey Maguire will return too, exciting fans impossibly more for this new movie and its many connections throughout the many Marvel universes.