Marvel deserves the backlash to this rumored Spider-Man decision

Spider-Man 4 will probably (probably!) come out in 2026, but we’re still unsure as to what the story will be. However, one prominent rumor has a lot of fans up in arms.

A purveyor of “inside scoops” named Daniel Richtman (DanielRPK) issued an update via Patreon on Spider-Man 4 today, Aug 26, and it didn’t exactly set the world on fire. According to Richtman, the movie will capitalize on the multiverse established in Spider-Man: No Way Home and possibly bring back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men. This is reportedly something Sony was pulling for, while MCU boss Kevin Feige and Tom Holland wanted to go in a different direction—Richtman made that clear back in January.

Now it’s important to reiterate that this is just a rumor, there’s nothing concrete so far, but people are not happy. The mere idea of Spider-Man returning to the multiverse has been met with little more than frustrated groans, in fact.

There’s no denying that multiverses make money—just look at Deadpool and Wolverine—but it wasn’t the direction most people wanted the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies to go. At the end of No Way Home, Spidey was alone, forgotten, cut off from the Avengers, and seemingly in the perfect place to set himself up as a street-level superhero. People were looking forward to seeing him interact with other street-level heroes such as Daredevil. There was even speculation for a while that a Spider-Man 4 could see Spidey and Daredevil team up against Kingpin, a major foe for both of them.

But now, people are frustrated that Marvel is seemingly constantly trying to relive past glories instead of coming up with anything new. See also: bringing Robert Downey Jr back as Dr Doom. The stories of Raimiverse Peter Parker and Webbverse Peter Parker were nicely finished up in No Way Home. Raimiverse Peter revealed that he and Mary Jane were back together, and Webbverse Peter got to save Zendaya’s MJ the way he couldn’t save Gwen Stacy. Bringing those two characters back would make No Way Home feel so much less special. And what could even be done with them? They’ve both served their purpose as mentor figures. Frankly, I don’t trust Marvel not to kill one or both of them for a cheap attempt at emotional manipulation.

Spider-Man 4 should be a chance for Marvel to bring in new characters and return Spidey to his roots, not make the multiverse even more convoluted and impersonal. Bigger is not always better.