#andrew garfield ruined me for the others men

[sincericida]

"Hi my name is Andrew Garfield and this is my 5th drink of the night"

Missing Andrew and his Italy era...

(X)

[sincericida]

[sincericida]

The beautiful and cute Andrew Garfield ❤️

[wxshing-aep]

The Late Late Show (pt 5)

Andrew Garfield x famous! reader

One Rule Series

In which y/n and andrew are in fact not dating but no one is buying it and andrew may not be the only one with heart eyes for y/n

warnings: tiny bit smutty (mentions of sex), some handsy stuff, oral but barely, mentions of underage drinking, swearing, dumbasses in love, hot british men

all characters are 18+, reader is 20 Andrew is 21

(not proofread oop)

If someone asked you how you ended up with your back pressed against the wall of your dressing room with andrew’s lips on yours and his hand down your pants you’d tell them that you had absolutely no idea. When you had invited him to your dressing room to hang out you really did intend to watch a movie or something but turns out the tv in your dressing room doesn’t actually work so you just ended up talking. Andrew’s quite an expressive conversationalist and likes to talk with his hands and you can’t really help but let your eyes drift to them every once in a while. That night that you and Andrew had shared together was supposed to be a one-off: a get him out of your system type thing, but you think it might’ve made that little fire inside you glow a little brighter for him. You’ve been spending the last couple days attached at the hip and doing interview after interview with him and you’ve caught yourself letting your eyes linger a bit too long on his hands or his lips -god his lips- but honestly who could blame you? Especially now that you are very familiar with exactly how good they feel on your lips and on your-

“Earth to y/n” Andrew announces waving a hand in front of your face. “think I lost you there for a second”

“sorry I just uh- tired, what were you saying”

“just wanted to make sure that we” he gestures between the two of you “are okay”

“yea? why wouldn’t we be”

“no reason, it’s just- after the other night I just wanted to make sure that nothing changed ya know? I don’t want things to be different between us” he was lying. he wanted things to be different. As cheesy as it sounds, he wanted more with you. He wanted to wake up next to you, to hear you complain about your day, to take you on dates, to hold your hand while walking down the street. He wanted you to be his. But every time he got close to confessing the depth of his feelings to you the words got stuck and his throat and he was terrified that you wouldn’t feel the same and that it would ruin your friendship and he thinks not having you in his life at all might kill him so he decided to settle on taking whatever you’d give him. 

“don’t worry about it okay? I mean it was just a one time thing like just a nice night”

“oh wow ‘a nice night’ that’s all I get?” he says with a nudge to your shoulder.

“it was a nice night”

“yea but that’s what you should say about our movie marathons or i dunno- having dinner with your grandma, not us having sex”

“okay 1: we didn’t have sex, we hooked up and 2: please never mention me having sex and my grandma in the same sentence ever again”

“I mean if we wanna disregard the basic patriarchal idea of what sex is then oral sex kinda does count as-”

“stop using the phrase oral sex, you sound like an old man”

“alright then would you rather me just say I ate your pu-”

“andrew!”

“what? do you want me to be quiet so you can bruise my ego again?”

“I’m not trying bruising your ego, what’s wrong with me saying it was nice??”

“oh i don’t know, I was looking for more of an ‘oh andrew, it was mindblowing’-”

“i don’t sound like that” you add but he ignores you and continues his little rant.

“or at least an ‘it was great’ because with the way that i remember your legs shaking around my head ‘nice’ seems like a bit of an understatement”

“well maybe you don’t remember correctly” you challenge.

“well maybe you just need a reminder” oh... oh.

Andrew’s mouth tends to work a bit faster than his brain and he’s about to apologize for being so forward when you take a step closer to him because he’s not the only one that struggles with impulse control.

“maybe I do” yea, that’s the last straw for him and suddenly his hands are on your face, lips meeting yours as he back you against the wall of your dressing room and god do you hope these walls aren’t thin. It didn’t take long for his hands to travel south, playing with the waistband of the sweats you’ve been lounging around in. He separates his lips from yours momentarily to mutter an “is this okay?” to which you nod frantically. He brings his lips back to yours, slipping his tongue into your mouth as his hand ventures into your pants. You moan into his mouth when his fingers rub circles around your clit causing him to chuckle against your lips before moving his mouth to your ear.

“feel nice?” he definitely put some extra emphasis on that second word and you probably would’ve had a witty answer prepared for him if his fingers weren’t currently making your head spin.

At some point his shirt was thrown somewhere across the room he ended up helping you out of your sweatpants and underwear and was now on his knees in front of you, peppering kisses up your leg. He doesn’t waste much time before bringing your leg to rest over his shoulder and licking a stripe up your core that makes you shudder. His lips attach to your clit and your hand finds its way into his hair. 

Your mind was buzzing, fully intoxicated by him: his hands on you, lips on you, the way that he talked, the way that he smelled, the way that someone was knocking on your door-

wait what? Originally you thought you might have imagined it, that is until you hear another three knocks on the door that send both you and Andrew into a panic.

“shit, shit, shit!” you whisper yell as you and andrew separate from each other and start frantically searching for your clothes. “just a second!” you yell toward the door as you fumble to yank your pants that you’d found strewn across a chair up your legs.

“you need to hide” you direct towards andrew pushing him towards the closet in your dressing room.

“what why? can’t we can just say I was hanging out in here?”

“Look at us” and that’s when Andrew turns to examine your appearance in one of the many body mirrors in the room and takes in how disheveled you both look: swollen lips, messy hair, not to mention the fact that he was still shirtless.

“you know what I think I’ll hide”

“oh what a great and original idea that no one’s ever had before” you retort as andrew settles himself among your many outfit options and you slide the closet door closed before trying to look as presentable as possible to answer the door.

You pull it open and your eyes widen when you see your director, Mindy Kailing, looking back at you. Mindy ‘very successful woman in hollywood’ Kailing. Mindy ‘I literally only gave you one rule and it was not to get involved with your costar’ Kailing. Mindy ‘absolutely has the power to fire you’ Kailing.

“heyyy Mindy, sorry about the wait I was uh- napping”

“oh no worries dear” she starts, letting herself into your dressing room carrying a package. “now, I know they’ve given you plenty of options to wear for the interview tonight but we got sent this beautiful Versace dress that I just think you would love” she rambles pulling out what may be the most expensive looking dress you’ve ever seen. 

“I get to wear this?”

“of course, be careful though this thing costs about 7 college tuitions”

“oh”

“you’re going to look amazing, let me hang it up for you” she says before starting to make her way toward your closet and it’s at this point when you remember the very british, very shirtless, very much your costar and did you mention shirtless man that’s hiding in there.

“no, no” you interrupt her path by stepping between her and your dressing room closet. “we should uh- just keep it out here i mean, a dress like this should definitely be out in the light don’t you think?”

“I like the way you think!” she responds and hooks the dress into an empty display rack instead. “alright, they need you in the makeup chair in 10! also have you seen andrew? they sent a suit for him as well but he wasn’t in his dressing room when I checked.”

“nope” you respond probably a bit too quickly. “haven’t seen him but he’s probably somewhere you know him always uh- somewhere”

“right well if you see him let him know I left it in his dressing room”

“perfect thanks!” you reply shutting the door behind her as she exits. 

You let out a sigh of relief before heading over the closet to let andrew out. He scrambles out and stands up stretching his limbs.

“You know for a professional liar, you’re not a very good liar. how would you even take a nap in here? there’s not even a couch” he comments.

“well she bought it, didn’t she? so stop making fun of me and go get your suit”

“woww, you’re kicking me out? after I was so nice to you” he says picking up his shirt off the floor and he’s not even facing you but you can hear the smugness in his voice.

“shut up and get out”

“so bossy”

-

“ Welcome back to the Late Late Show” introduces James Corden. “Tonight, we’ve got two of the hottest stars on the planet right now, give it up for Y/n Y/l/n and Andrew Garfield!”

“Happy to be here James!” Andrew responds clad in his new suit that he simply looks far too good in.

“Well I am happy that you’re here. Now Andrew we’ve had you on the show before but Y/n you’ve just had an incredible past few months. You’ve just been nominated for a daytime Emmy award for lead actress in a drama or comedy series- one of the youngest to ever be nominated for that by the way, how are you feeling about all of this?”

“It’s crazy. I’ve never done anything on this scale before but the cast and crew is so amazing at what they do that it really just becomes like this big fun game of pretend that I get to do for a few months and I really hope we get to continue this story and find out what happens to these characters because I think I’ve grown pretty fond of them”

“And so has quite literally the entire world, ‘This is the Life’ is absolutely smashing all kinds of records right now and people are going crazy for it and especially going crazy for the dynamic between your characters, can you tell us a bit about that?” James asks.

“Well without giving any spoilers,” andrew begins “ I’m just really excited to see where they end up because they definitely tend to bicker like cats and dogs and are normally quite rude to each other for most of their interactions but I think in like this weird cosmic way Max needs Ash because she’s one of the only people that sees straight through this kind of facade that he’s built to protect himself so she’s kind of one of the few people who really sees him”

“I love that. People are absolutely losing their minds over the Max and Ashlynn dynamic. They’re calling them Maxlynn online, have you guys seen that?”

“Yea, I’m not going to lie I tend to lurk on twitter pretty often” you answer, “and I just find it so funny because Tom and Zendaya play Harry and Iris who are this adorable and stable couple with this super healthy foundation and relationship and then I’ll see tweets that are like ‘yea yea whatever wholesome love sounds great, but the ones that seem like they want to kill each other? yea, make them kiss in the rain right now or else lol’ and then they’ll like tag Mindy.” Your anecdote gets a laugh from andrew as well as James and the audience.

“Speaking of tweets, we got absolutely bombarded with them when it was announced that we were having you two on show. This fandom is no joke and we’ve got a lot of questions that came in for you guys so we thought it would be fun if we throw a few of these questions at you” James prompts.

“yea go ahead” “sounds good”

“Lovely, alright the first one is from user y/ndefenselawyer-”

“wow great username” you comment.

“absolutely and they want to know what is your favorite memory from set”

“oh gosh there’s so many” you start.

“the college party was fun” andrew comments to you.

“oh yea i almost forgot about that” you nudge andrew prompting him to tell the story.

“so basically on this show we’re playing a bunch of college aged kids and we are a bunch of college aged kids but none of us have ever actually been to college and I think it was actually Timothee’s idea but Tom will take credit for it if you ask him but the idea was that we should attend an actual university for a few days and the network was like oh yea that’s a great idea so they literally enrolled the seven of us into classes at USC for like 3 days” andrew starts.

“so you were all just taking actual college classes?”

you nod and add “yea and it worked out really well because we’re all the right age and the show cast hadn’t been announced yet and it’s like one of my first projects so I was chilling like no one was interrogating me but it was hilarious watching everyone else just gaslight anyone who came up to them like someone was talking to Florence and asked if she was in Little Women and she’d just be like ‘ugh why do people always say I look like that girl’ and like stomp away from them”

“That’s hilarious,” James comments “so what’s this about a party?”

“we had literally only been there for about a day and a half and somehow y/n had already gotten the entire USC basketball team to fall in love with her-”

“they were not in love with me” you remark swatting his shoulder.

“right right” he responds before mouthing a ‘they were in love with her’ at the audience which earned him some laughs. “so they ended up inviting all of us to this huge party that they throw every year and ya know, none of us really got the college experience so we were like well we have to go. And for legal reasons I’m going to say that the rest of this story is completely hypothetical so we all went to this like massive rager and were out until like 4 in the morning and had an 8 am call time to be on set the next day and we all show up ridiculously hung over, hypothetically of course, and when Mindy shows up to start shooting we’re all just exhausted laying on the floor of the break room and she walks in and observes all of our lifeless bodies on the ground and just goes ‘i don’t want to know’ and walks back out”

“Well now she knows” you added

“She does indeed, but I take it you lot had a great time”

“I loved it!” 

“ Speaking of love this next question is from user heartsgarfield, and they want to know... are you two dating?”

“well.... no” “mmm.... no we’re not” you and andrew chime in over each other.

“okay, you’re saying no” james responds

“correct” andrew replies

“can i be honest- I don’t believe you”

“we really aren’t” you add.

“there’s no way you two haven’t made out” James accuses and you get a momentary flashback to the earlier escapades in your dressing room.

“we haven’t” you insist, lying your ass off.

“why not? i mean you’re hot, you’re hot-” James gestures at the two of you.

“ya know, i’ve tried to make a move and she just tells me to get lost” Andrew jokes.

“wait so you have made a move”

“that’s not true, he’s a liar” you defend.

“see how mean she is to me” andrew earns a laugh from the audience.

“hold on let’s unpack this-”

“we’re just kidding we aren’t actually dating” you interrupt James.

“yea no we’re truly we’re not-” Andrew chimes in.

“you’re both suddenly getting very defensive” James accuses

“we’re not being defensive, we’re just saying we haven’t made out” you reply.

“i don’t believe you”

“I don’t care” you finish earning a round of laughter and applause from James and the audience.

“Alright we’ll be right back with more Late Late Show after the break!”

-

“Welcome back to the Late Late Show, we are here with Y/n Y/l/n and Andrew Garfield from the new hit series ‘This is the Life’ now streaming on Netflix. Now y/n” James directs his attention towards you.

“uh oh” you respond which gets some laughs.

“a little birdie told me, you’re quite the music fan. I’ve heard that being a bit of a music fanatic is quite your style”

“oh god”

“it seems that your fans have noticed this as well” James laughs, “and if you turn your attention to the screen we’d like to share this fan made video beautifully titled y/n y/l/n mentioning harry styles in interviews for a minute straight”

“oh no way” Andrew laughs from beside you.

You bury your head is your hands as the video plays of you talking about how much you loved harry styles and bringing him up every chance you got and you just keep your head down until the video ends.

James clears his throat “So are you a Harry Styles fan cause I couldn’t really tell how you felt about him from the video it’s a bit unclear”

“you’re sick James,” You shake your head at him.

“You know what would really be sick is if Harry Styles was here right now”

“James-” you warn.

“That would be really crazy”

“don’t- James I cannot mentally do this right now” You start panicking which sends Andrew into a fit of laughter and applause.

“You know we’re friends right-”

“James I’m being so serious-”

“like how crazy would it be if he was just right over there” James teases gesturing to stage left which makes everyone look.

“well he’s not there” James states gaining laughs from everyone as you place your hand over your heart to calm your nerves.

“god that was so stressful” you sigh.

“yea he’s not over there. and that’s because he’s right over here, ladies and gentlemen welcome tonight’s surprise musical guest Mr. Harry Styles!”

You think your heart might’ve stopped as Harry walked in waving to the audience before shaking hands with James, and then Andrew, and finally comes to greet you with a hug and a “Hi love, wonderful to meet you, you look amazing” and you return his sentiment before he takes a seat on the other side of you.

“so y/n how are you feeling?” James asks.

“i literally have no idea what’s happening” you respond.

“if it makes you feel any better, I’m quite the fan of you as well” harry comments.

“shut up”

“mm serious, I think I binged your show for like 3 days straight”

“i think i binged your album for like 3 days straight”

“See how lovely is that” James adds “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be back with a perfomance from Harry Styles after the break!” James cuts to commercial as you continue to chat with Harry, unaware of the way that Andrew shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

-

There’s no way that that just happened. You essentially just made you late night show debut and got to meet a super hot celebrity crush all in one night and your still trying to process it all when you return to your dressing room, immediately removing your heels and crashing on the couch. The couch? Last time you checked, your dressing room didn’t have a couch and that’s when you look around and notice the rack decorated in a multitude of different suits and are starting to put 2 and 2 together before Harry just does it for you and walks into his dressing room startling you and causing you to jump up from the couch.

“m’sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you!” Harry states seemingly more concerned with the thought that he might’ve scared you rather than wondering why you were in his dressing room in the first place.

“I’m so sorry, I thought this was my dressing room. They took the name cards down and I didn’t realize that this wasn’t-”

“no worries, love. no man in their right mind is going to complain about finding a beautiful woman in his dressing room, but I’m sure your boyfriend is waiting on you”

“my boyfriend?” you question.

“don’t worry, I won’t go telling any tabloids on you but I’m just assuming that the guy who follows you around like a lovesick puppy would be your boyfriend” andrew.

“oh we aren’t- I mean he’s not my boyfriend” you respond, hopeful that Harry didn’t catch the tinge of sadness in your voice at the phrase ‘not my boyfriend’.

“does he know that?” he asks to which you just respond with a dry laugh and decide on changing the subject.

“so did you see my whole fangirl meltdown out there?”

“course not” he responds immediately before proceeding to go “James I can’t mentally handle this right now James I’m being so serious”

“oh god, that’s so embarrassing”

“I thought it was cute”

is harry styles flirting with you right now

“I should uh probably get going and-”

“have you got any plans later?”

“uh unless you count a date with my couch then no”

“well if your couch doesn’t mind, would you like to come to a party with me?”

did harry styles just ask you out?

-

next part

a/n: hot british men obsessed w y/n alert!!! sorry this part took so long guys i’ve been swamped with homework. anyways I’m picturing like 20-21 yr old harry for this story so like prince hair era but you can picture whichever one you want!

tags: @myrapottah​ , @redgetawaycar​ , @eatmyblackass​ , @rellasnowheenim​ , @raginghellfire​ , @percysaidnever​ , @twsssmlmaa​

[tooktheladdedgbtq]

....and the Oscar goes to.. | Tom Holland X Male!actor reader. 

A/N: this was just something I wrote because I got inspired I guess. Happy Pride everyone!

——————————————

You couldn’t decide whether time was slipping through your fingers too quickly or if this had been the longest night you’d ever experienced.

seconds slowed to a crawl while you tried to gather yourself before it was your turn to take the stage. You were nervous. Not about being at the oscars or presenting for the first time. Not even about being nominated for your leading role in the second installment of a critically acclaimed trilogy. No, you’d been used to these sorts of things, you’d been an actor since you were a very young kid. Starting on television before film, and you even got to hold the Emmy the show had won when you had just turned a teenager.

No, you were nervous about who exactly you’d be presenting to. Of the five nominees and potential winners, only one could cause such an intensive feeling in your chest. Only one could awaken a sense of dread that battled with a feeling of intensive happiness mixed with anticipation, and it was Tom.

You’d known each other for years and had come to fall in love. You’d met as young co-stars on set and eventually grew into an inseparable friendship that progressed into something far more. Neither of you were sure when the feelings started but it felt like they’d always been there and you weren’t exactly complaining.

Your blissfulness with Tom was beautiful but short lived. After almost a year of being official you both agreed to take a break from the relationship. Unbeknownst to Tom you were just agreeing to save face and hadn’t pried for an answer out of fear of being hurt. You just accepted that this was how things were now, and took a step back.

You’d still kept in contact with him. It was hard not to. He was still your best friend. But whether it was the business of work or something a little more awkward, distance grew between you both as the multi-hour long facetime calls and text threads became once-a-week check-ins to just make sure you were alive and okay.

Time had passed, and you didn’t have a clue what you could possibly say to him now. You certainly didn’t want to ruin his special night. But you’d missed him so much and felt like you would implode at the first sign that he’d be interested in getting back together with you. But you also didn’t want to seem desperate or needy if he’d moved on. You didn’t want to slip and say those three words again in the moment.

Father time showed you no mercy as the sand in his hourglass suddenly shifted from a slow-motion drip to a flood. The seconds you’d spent daydreaming of your past with Tom and pondering about the your potential future had passed and left you with little time to gather yourself before presenting. still you shook your hands, arms, and lastly shoulders, putting all your worries aside and waited for introduction from the host.

Before long you’d been counted in to walking on stage, and heard the host over the microphone. “Ladies and Gentlemen, to present the award and introduce the nominees for Best Supporting Actor, please welcome one of this year’s nominees and one of our generation’s greatest talents: Y/F/N Y/L/N.”

The applause erupts from the audience like a revved up engine as you took center but it was nothing compared to the standing ovation you’d receive later on that night when receiving your own award for Best Actor.

You were stood promptly center staged with the towering Oscar statue reflecting onto the black stage floor beneath your feet. Your outfit was alluring and would surely be the next hot topic which is rare for male stars. You looked like a million bucks. Everyone knew it, most of all, Tom.

You smile and wave as you approach the microphone, your teeth shining a blinding white, and wait for a hush from the crowd.

You chuckle lightly as a few hoots and hollers sound out as the cheers subside.

You eye the monitor across the room and start to read, your nerves dying down as your jokes land and laughter echoes around the room.

As you finish the introduction, clips start to show behind you to accompany the names of the nominees as the cameras catch a glimpse of each of their reactions.

You couldn’t help but notice how tough the competition was as each actor was called. Steven Yuen playing a detective in a thrilling murder mystery. John David Washington in a fictional film playing the world’s first black astronaut aiding in the discovery of lovecraftian horrors. Andrew Garfield for his role as a psychotic narcissist and genius businessman. Oscar Issac acting in a sci fi space opera asking questions of existentialism.

Finally, you had to withhold your smile as you called out the last name. He had returned to his Billy Elliot roots being nominated for his role in a astonishing musical romance film. “Tom Holland.” You’d been ecstatic when he’d told you about it as you’d always recommend he tried it again since it made him so happy in his younger years.

You spot him a few rows from the stage, making eye contact with him and wondering if he was thinking about you the way you had done with him earlier. You couldn’t help but notice him squirming in his chair and fidgeting with his hands. Selfishly asking yourself if this wasn’t just about the award but about having you present it to him.

Seeing you here after what felt like an eternity apart and your reunion potentially being the greatest achievement of both your careers. Making it the greatest night of your lives, that is, if you were still together. But you were still best friends. That’s what mattered. So you push your self centered thoughts aside and shoot him a small wave that he returns with a smile and thumbs up. letting you know he was okay and that you could continue as the camera pans back to you capturing your not so hidden giddiness.

This awarded some small oos and aahs from the crowd as your relationship with him had been a wholly celebrated one. especially among your marvel peers.

You’re handed an envelope and statue as the music ends and the applause dies down and you take one final glare into the camera before beginning to open the envelope.

“....and the Oscar goes to,” you take a peek at the crowd and see some of the nominees holding hands with loved ones. others plainly

awaiting your next words with bated breath. The anticipation shone on everyone’s faces. Even those that weren’t nominated. Your not-so-hidden grin giving away the answer mere milliseconds before his name escaped your lips. “Tom Holland!”

Tom shot up with a shared expression of shock and happiness on his face. Pecking his mother on the cheek as she wipes the tears of pride from her eyes. His best mate Harrison gives him a quick embrace and a pat on the back before he moves on to shake hands with the director and smile at everyone cheering him on as he gradually moves toward the stage still completely baffled at the victory.

As he walks towards you in his pink pastel colored suit and brown leather dress shoes you can’t help but swell with an overwhelming feeling of joy having been here to share this career defining moment with him. You thought about how far you’d both come to get here and almost started tearing up remembering all you’d been through together.

He skipped up the miniature steps and blanketed you with both arms. You didn’t want it to end as you hadn’t felt it in a while. You threw your arms around his neck and he tightens his hold around your torso. Before you could even process them, your blunt thoughts spill out as whispers.

“I’m so incredibly proud of you. you deserve this and so much more.” you hear a small chuckle escape him as he responds. “I am trying not to cry y’know mate?” a wolf whistle comes from the crowd as you apologize for being so sappy and before he can tell you off for it you hand him his award and shove him off toward the microphone.

As he takes center stage you stand off to the side to watch him give his acceptance speech. He pauses and takes a second to gather himself before he starts talking straight from his heart with nothing prepared.

“Um, Wow. I really can’t believe this is really happening and I probably still won’t believe it happened tomorrow. Just.. wow.” his words were filled with that charmingly British accent you’d come to love so much.

“First I would like to thank my mother, without whom of course, I would not be here. I would like to thank the academy and everyone who worked on this movie from the producers and camera men, make-up and costumes, to our wonderful writers, composer, back up dancers and vocalists, and of course my friends, my co-star and the director Damien Chazelle.” whom he gestures to sitting in the second row. “I share this with all of you and I can’t thank you enough for awarding me with the opportunity to create something I love so much.”

He thanks the other nominees before turns towards you to end his speech. you felt your heart in your hands when you saw his big brown puppy eyes dart in your direction with an intensive glare of admiration.

“last but most importantly, I want to thank the inspiration for all of the love songs I sung in the film and the reason I decided to take the role. The person standing here on my right.”

Your jaw drops and your eyes widen when his words hit you like a speeding semi. you realize that he’d just called you his muse in so many words. the inspiration behind the love songs in the film no less. Meaning that with every lovestruck note his character sung he was reminded of you. All that time spent worrying if the distance between you two would cause him to forget about you, or if he’d maybe moved on and found somebody else. But no such thing had happened. He was relating his character’s longing in the film to his longing for you this entire time and that made your heart do a backflip.

You blush and cover your still ajar mouth with your fist whilst trying not to pay attention to the crowd who’s attention was fully focused on you.

He takes a deep sigh before continuing. “Y/N you’re not only the reason I took this role, but you’re the reason I was able to play it with such sincerity. You’ve been a unwavering beacon of support throughout my career in general but here you really gave me the inspiration for something special. He faces the audience again as the all follow his words with whispers of how adorable you both were. “from reading lines together in the middle of the night, to keeping me company when i’m on the brink of a meltdown.” It was all true and it only made you miss you relationship more and you found it difficult to hold back your tears.

“Y/N is the kind of best friend everybody needs, the kind of partner everybody deserves, and the person I’m so incredibly lucky to have known for so long. ..and I still can’t believe he never figured out the lyrics were all about him, It was kind of obvious-” the audience laughed you’re so close to swooning as he turns toward you again. “But, with all my heart, I love you, Y/N. Always will.” you feel as if you’re floating.

He shifts to the crowd one last time to say a final thank you before you both walk off stage one arm around one another’s shoulders. You have a short but sweet conversation backstage with him where reassures you that everything he said on stage was true and completely unscripted. He wants to talk more but knows your category is coming soon so he asks for a later opportunity and you agree before returning to your seat in the crowd.

The rest of the night flew by with you winning the award for best actor and receiving the biggest applause of the night. Tom joined in the standing ovation. You thanked everybody involved in making the film, the academy, and squeezed a little joke directed towards Tom that garnered a shared laugh from both him and the audience. You were the last award of the night and after the celebrations it was time to return to your place, where Tom was waiting for you. Wanting to talk about everything that had happened not just tonight but everything leading up to it. He also hoped you’d kept a spot open in your heart for him to return to.

[a-chaotic-ananas]

ranking movies i watched this week while avoiding my academic obligations

bride wars: 9/10. comfort movie. would be 10/10 if liv owned up to the shit she did more and actually apologized. i have beef with bitches like her. i cried at the scene where they look at each other over the hallway because i was about to get my period. anyway.

love hard: 5. 5/10 but only because nina dobrev is hot and so is darren barnet. the karaoke scene was so cringe i had to skip ahead. okay for a netflix christmas movie i guess, but we should really talk about the part where he catfished her more.

adrift: 6. 5/10. the twist made me want to k-word myself but other than that pretty uneventful. the aesthetic in the first part is pretty and it's fucking me up it's based on a true story. also sam claflin and shailene woodley slap.

the social network: 10/10. there are two things in this world im a slut for and that's propaganda and andrew garfield. immaculate dialogue, ✨delicious✨sarcasm. unfortunately, armie hammer is also incredibly hot.

a cinderella story: 5/10. this movie is so bad it's camp so that's redeeming. the acting ia giving early 2000s much like everything else about it from the raging not like the other girls syndrome to chad michael murray ruining my young life. i never watched that movie in my ✨formative years✨ because i was literally one when it came out, so there's that.

she's all that: 6/10. cute. laney is cool. i like it when the asshole isn't that much of an asshole. 90s beauty standards for men really weren't it but we'll live. jesse looks like a chubbier version of a guy i almost dated and it's bringing me to the edge of hysteria. have a nice day

[belizedeservesbetter]

The Inheritance Isn’t As Good or Important or Meaningful or Deep As It Thinks It Is

the disappointment of the year!

To play off of a quote from the play, one might as well begin with the reviews of the women sitting behind me during Part 1. 

“It thinks it’s Angels in America but has nowhere near the amount of depth Angels has.” 

When talking about The Inheritance, it’s inevitable that Angels in America comes up as well. Both are very very long plays in two parts that are about gay men in New York. Both deal with the AIDS crisis, but while Angels in America takes place in the 80s, The Inheritance takes place in 2016. Angels in America is a modern classic and expertly tackles a multitude of themes in ideas, hence the subtitle of “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” The Inheritance, well, it wants to tackle some issues. 

The Inheritance really really wants to be a big important play. It wants to be the Angels of this generation. You can literally feel how bad playwright Matthew Lopez wants this play to be Meaningful and Deep and Important. However, this play is as deep as the shallow end of a pool. Throughout the play, I kept coming back to a moment in Angels in America where Louis is telling Prior how much he is hurting and how much he loves him and Prior says “he loves, but his love is worth nothing.” Belize has a similar moment with Louis where he tells Louis that he is talking quite a bit but not actually saying anything. 

The Inheritance talks enough to fill six hours but ultimately says absolutely nothing. 

I had read The Inheritance a while back and wasn’t a fan of it but thought that seeing it would be like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which I ended up loving despite not liking it very much when I just read it. 

Alas. 

I think I need to tackle this play in two parts because both plays could easily stand alone and my thoughts on each were a bit different. 

**some spoilers throughout**

Part 1

I actually enjoyed Part One. I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoy Gossip Girl. It’s a bit of a mess but I had a good time. At least Part 1 is coherent. To be honest, Part 1 could’ve been a stand alone play and while it would not have been a great play, it would have been good. Part 2 ruined it BUT we’re not there yet.

It’s hard to explain what The Inheritance is about without getting too spoilery and getting into a long winded ramble but it’s kind of an adaption of Howard’s End in the sense that E.M. Forrester (who other characters call Morgan) is a narrator who narrates sometimes (this is inconsistent) and it kinda follows the plot of the book but the important part is the main characters are Toby Darling and Eric Glass. They’ve been together for 8 years and live in Eric’s awesome rent controlled apartment. They’re kinda sorta close with this gay couple that lives in their building named Henry Wilcox and Walter Poole. They have a close friend group. Toby turns his novel (called Loved Boy) into a play, which stars Toby and Eric’s protege who is a rich kid named Adam. However, as Toby and Adam grow closer, so does Eric and Walter. There aren’t many stakes in this play but I guess drama ensues. 

The play is very oddly hypocritical. The characters are CONSTANTLY talking about wanting to be truthful and authentic and how they hate what is fake. However, this play feels very fake and very inauthentic. Characters go on long diatribes about things that do not matter. There is a very very long scene where a group of characters talk about what it means to be gay in America today and they say nothing new or important, even though they think they are. They talk about things that ultimately mean nothing. They often say “we need to talk about *insert something actually important*” but never actually talk about it. They don’t even argue with each other. Everyone generally agrees with each other and they are mostly speaking to have their voice heard. 

This play does a lot of telling instead of showing. I liked the use of characters talking about things in the third person/narrating themselves (and I liked it a lot less when Morgan did it because I had no idea why he was there but loved when Eric and Toby did it) but they would often tell us things instead of showing us things. For example, we are told like 10 times through Part 1 that Eric is so special and so important and so remarkable. However, I have no idea why. He’s a very nice guy but there is nothing that warrants this level of praise. Likewise, instead of characters actually growing and learning, it’s explained away with narration. Characters even get out of tricky situations simply through Morgan saying that they did. 

Toby Darling writes a play and the reviews for his play are that the acting is amazing but the play itself leaves much to be desired. Crazy how Matthew Lopez reviewed his own play already! 

To put the writing aside for a bit, I thought a lot of the acting was really wonderful. 

The three standouts were Sam Lilja (understudy for Eric Glass), Andrew Burnap (Toby Darling) and Tony Goldwyn (Henry Wilcox).

I thought Sam Lilja was absolutely amazing as Eric and I loved every moment he was onstage. He brought this warmth and care to the role that I really enjoyed. He has an amazing stage presence and even though I have problems with how Eric Glass is written, I loved his performance and thought he was the highlight of the play. His Eric Glass gave love to whoever would have it and you could see his heart absolutely break in two when he (SPOILER) has his big break up with Toby. I’m sad he’s the understudy because he absolutely deserves a Tony nomination for this performance. The way he ends Part 1 was truly beautiful and will stay with me for a while. 

Andrew Burnap was 85% wonderful and 15% Prior Walter impression. I’ll go more into my thoughts on Toby Darling as a character later but for the most part I really loved Burnap’s performance. He has this certain kind of energy that makes the theatre filled with electricity whenever he was onstage. I missed him when he wasn’t there. Toby Darling can very easily be played as a one note kind of person but Burnap gives him layers upon layers. I loved watching him onstage. However, there were also some moments where I could very clearly tell he’s watched the National Theatre Live’s recording of Angels in America too many times and was emulating Andrew Garfield as best as he could. He even does the same voice a couple times. However, overall I thought Burnap was great. 

I had forgotten Tony Goldwyn was in The Inheritance for a while because Henry Wilcox doesn’t show up until the end of Part 1 in a very intense scene so when he did finally appear I was a little shocked to see him and was briefly taken right out of the scene cause in my head I was like “Oh look it’s Tony Goldwyn!” And my brain has a very good reason to have that reaction because he’s great! Henry Wilcox is a tough character because he’s awful but you must root for him. He stands for all that is bad but at the same time you have to like him because (BIG SPOILER) Eric loves him and you trust Eric because Sam Lilja is so good. Somehow Goldwyn balances all of this. His scenes with Lilja and Paul Hilton (Walter Poole/Morgan) were especially good. 

Speaking of Walter, there are two very great parts in Part 1 that are probably the parts you keep hearing about if you’ve looked into this play in any capacity. There’s a moment about halfway through Part 1 and then at the end of Part 1 that are very truly beautiful moments that have to do with Eric and, to an extent, Walter Poole. At the top of the play, Walter is Henry’s partner who becomes good friends with Eric and teaches him about what it was like to be gay in the 80s and how he owns this big house upstate where he (SPOILER) housed people dying of AIDS and took care of them and essentially ruined his relationship with Henry because of it. There’s a moment where Eric makes a comment about how he has no idea what living through the AIDS crisis must have been like and the following moment that ensues is one of the highlights of the play. I’m not going to say anything else about that because it’s heartbreaking and really takes you by surprise. The other great moment ends Part One and again, this is the moment you’ve probably already heard of because it’s the moment people seem to be talking about the most. I will say, Beautiful Theatrical Thing That Occurs At The End aside, this scene is sold on Eric’s reaction to it. And again, because I feel like this review is turning into me talking about how great Sam Lilja was, his acting in this moment was super lovely. 

Stephen Daldry’s directing was... interesting, I guess. I liked its simplicity and all but there were times that it felt kind of haphazard. I don’t really understand why no one wore shoes. I’m sure there’s a great explanation for it but for the life of me I couldn’t understand why. Henry Wilcox wore shoes. Walter Poole/Morgan wore shoes. In Part 2, Lois Smith’s character wears shoes. Even Eric wears shoes for a bit in Part 2 before taking them off again at the end. When Eric did it  I knew they were ~ symbolic ~ of something but i just couldn’t get it. I did like how simple the staging was. There’s a lot of plot going on so I appreciated a very straightforward approach to the staging. There were some neat stage pictures too. The monologues in this play are very long but they were staged in a way that I was with them through it. 

There is only one directing bit that I took real issue with (and I’m putting this on the writing too) but there’s a part towards the beginning of the play where Eric wants to have sex with Toby to avoid bringing up an issue with his apartment and Morgan will not let the audience see the explicit details, resulting in a really weird dance that is played entirely for laughs. For example, they do squats and twirls around each other and fake moan and whatnot. In a play that wants to be groundbreaking and important, why not let your characters actually be intimate with each other? Plays with straight characters do it all the time! Take Linda Vista for example! And it doesn’t even have to be as wildly explicit as Linda Vista’s sex scenes were! The weird sex dance was honestly really offputting and I heard many “what?” and “what is happening?” complaints from the audience. A lot of moments that had any emotional weight were quickly played off for a laugh, but this was the one that made me cringe. 

So in all, I liked Part 1. I really like Toby and Eric and for the most part their scenes were the best parts of the play. Part 1 ends in a very nice and emotional way that’s a bit emotionally manipulative but ultimately felt like a true ending and I was emotionally satisfied. There’s some truly beautiful moments in Part 1 and a semi-clear focus that kept me engaged and liking the characters for the full three hours and fifteen minutes. Again, as I’ve said before time and time again, I really loved Sam Lilja and thought his performance was marvelous. He also looks strikingly like Rhea Butcher. Take that as you will. 

To go briefly into the ticket logistics: I got to the box office at around 12 on a Friday and there was no line and they had plenty of rush tickets available. I had a wonderful front row side seat with a lot of leg room. The theatre wasn’t terribly full. I didn’t stage door but someone I was talking to after the show said most everyone comes out and signs. 

Part 2

Oh boy.

I really didn’t like Part 2. 

Like I didn’t like Part 2 so much that it almost ruined the entire play for me. 

This is going to be a lot of spoilers because I have no other way to process the mess that was Part 2 of The Inheritance.

I was talking to the guy at the box office and he was telling me how Part 2 sells a lot better than Part 1 because they do Part 1 five times a week while they only do Part 2 three times a week. They do Part 1 Wednesdays - Sundays, but Part 2 only on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Thursdays and Fridays are both Part 1. I wondered why they didn’t have a system in place like Angels in America had, until I saw Part 2 of The Inheritance and understood why the producers want to do Part 2 as little as possible.

Guys, Part 2 of The Inheritance is really really bad. 

All the heavy handed writing in Part 1 that I was willing to forgive just becomes even more heavy handed and even more cliche. The whole play feels completely different, partly because they mostly give up on the E.M. Forrester as a character bit until one random scene towards the end where he returns. Even the characters have given up on Howard’s End! Where in Part 1 the characters constantly talk about Howard’s End, which I guess makes sense because the entire play is an adaptation on it, in Part 2 they strictly talk about Maurice. And that is the least of my problems with Part 2! 

Part 2′s fatal flaw is that the play suddenly becomes about a boy named Leo. Who is Leo? Well, to talk about Leo we first need to backtrack to Part 1 to a boy named Adam. 

As I briefly touched on before, Adam is an actor (with a very privileged background) who Toby meets and puts in his play. SPOILERS but Toby falls in love with Adam. Adam has these monologues about how he was adopted when he was two weeks old by billionaire parents so he knows what real struggle is. This bit of character info is often repeated and it becomes more and more laughable but the play took this very seriously, which was strange. Adam has this other monologue about hooking up with a lot of men in a bathhouse in Prague and almost getting HIV. Bigger Spoiler but this monologue has a moment where the actor playing Adam (Samuel H. Levine) reaches into his underwear and when he pulls out his hand, it’s covered in blood and he tells Toby about how he had sex with so many men that his ass was bleeding. 

Leo has a very similar monologue, bloody hand and all. He’s even HIV positive. Check out Louis Peitzman’s article which I have linked at the end with more on that. 

Anyways, Adam won’t sleep with Toby so Toby self-destructs and ruins the one good thing he has aka his relationship with Eric and hires a prostitute named Leo who looks EXACTLY like Adam. He looks so much like Adam that Samuel H. Levine also plays Leo. Leo is in exactly one scene in Part 1 and it works because it ends Toby’s arc in how he can’t what is real (he thinks it’s Adam but it’s actually Eric) so he chooses to live in what is fake (drugs, alcohol and Adam’s prostitute doppleganger). This is messy and not handled that well but at least I see where the dots connect. 

However, in Part 2, Adam basically disappears and the play very suddenly becomes all about Leo.

And it is so horribly handled.

Adam is very rich and stands very tall and talks very confidently. Leo, on the other hand, is very poor and stands hunched over and talks like he’s constantly crying. There’s a very strange amount of poverty porn going on in Part 2. We are constantly hearing about how poor Leo is and all the things he’s had to do for food, shelter and drugs. There’s a moment where he’d huddled on the ground and eating peanut butter out of a jar while the ensemble tells you for like the tenth time how destitute he is. 

Oh yeah and there’s a scene between Adam and Leo that is staged so oddly I have no idea how it made it past previews. It’s as horribly handled as you think it is - with Levine going from standing up straight to hunched over repeatedly for like five minutes. 

The worst part of the play is the weird scene where Leo meets Morgan in a dream and tells him to become a writer and then at the end Leo reveals that the play you’ve been watching is a book he wrote called, you guessed it, The Inheritance. 

Yikes.

Also, for some reason Leo talks like he’s ten years old. There’s actually this strange recurring theme in Part 2 where Matthew Lopez thinks the next generation doesn’t know what AIDS is. There’s a whole moment where a doctor has to explain to Leo what HIV is. Eric also explains it again to Leo for good measure. Likewise, there is a scene where Eric has all of his friends over and his friend/boss Jasper brings his young artist boyfriend and the topic of the AIDS crisis comes up and Jasper’s boyfriend talks about how he doesn’t know what that is and how he doesn’t know what T cells are. Tristan, who is literally The Inheritance’s version of Belize (same mannerisms and one-liners, basically the only person of color in the play and a doctor to boot), then explains it to him. However, Jasper’s boyfriend not knowing literally anything is purely there so Lopez can make a long winded analogy about America being a body, democracy being T cells and Donald Trump being an embodiment of AIDS. Does Matthew Lopez think this next generation doesn’t know what AIDS is? It’s so condescendingly explained and it seems that any character under thirty doesn’t know what it is, when, in an age of smart phones with limitless information, it seems like more people would know what it is now than ever.

But I digress.

Somewhere in all this Eric’s plot line goes down the drain because he decides to marry Henry Wilcox. This could have worked if Henry wasn’t a billionaire republican who is friends with Trump and if the play didn’t so heavily establish that Eric works for a social justice nonprofit and is a passionate activist. There is no chance in hell someone like Eric would so willingly marry someone who is literal friends with a literal demon. He marries Henry because the play tells him he has to. And again, much like in Part 1, we hear so often from various narration about how wonderful and important and remarkable Eric is, without giving us any reason why.

Much like Part 1, there aren’t any real stakes in this play and no sense of any ticking clock or whatnot. Things just kinda happen at the pace they do because the various narrators (and Morgan in Part 1) say they do. 

There’s one good scene in Part 2 when Toby shows up at Eric’s wedding and tries to save him from Henry and Eric has a breakdown and yells and yells at Toby about all the terrible things Toby has done and put him through and it’s a really delicious moment that I wish the play had more of. 

From there to the end, the play horribly mishandles each of its characters. However, Part 2 of The Inheritance could have been very good. The solutions to all the bad things in the play could very easily have been implemented, but, instead, the play just spirals. So I want to go into that for a bit, because the rest of the play is a shit storm. 

For starters, Leo needs to go because his plot just doesn’t work. At all. The play was originally about Eric and Toby, and, to a lesser extent, Walter and Henry. With Walter (spoilers) dead, the play does shift more of its focus to Henry, who I’ll start with first. 

Henry Wilcox’s big problem is that he refuses to let go of his past. He pushed Walter away because he couldn’t deal with the AIDS crisis. He shut down and focused on his work, which made him bitter and jaded and warped his sense of love. The past haunts him so much that he refuses to sleep with his HUSBAND Eric because of it. That’s not a good reason and the fact that he expects Eric to deal with a sexless marriage is one of the more wildly unrealistic parts of the play. But you know what, this is a play so I’ll roll with it for a bit. Henry’s problem is the most clearly defined and has the clearest solution. He needs to move on from his past. This play talks constantly about needing to move on from the past. What happens is Eric and Henry get divorced and the ghost of Walter tells Henry to live before they walk off into a ghostly sunrise. That isn’t a solution. A ghost cannot tell you to be better and then you suddenly become better. Eric needs to help him through this, as well as Walter’s big house upstate. The best physical representation of Henry finally being able to move on from his past would be him sleeping with Eric. If Stephen Daldry wants to continue with this weird dance combo being the equivalent of sex, then they can do this beautiful waltz. You can even have Toby narrate it, especially because the Henry/Eric relationship hurts him the most. Henry and Eric don’t even need to ultimately stay together - and they shouldn’t - but Henry cannot finally move on from his past in the literal last minute of the play because a ghost magically cured him. The easiest solution was literally sitting right there. Literally. Eric sits next to him a lot. 

This play has a big Toby Darling problem that it loses its grip on and lets flop on the floor like a fish. Toby has a big personality and a nasty self-destructive streak. The foundations for Toby are fantastic. He’s flawed yet funny and breaks Eric heart while simultaneously breaking his own. Toby, like just about every other character in this play, needs to move on from his past. Toby’s past is one he keeps close to his chest and is so unrealistically traumatic that it doesn’t even make sense. But again, this is a play and not the real world so let’s just accept this for a moment. Toby is constantly talking about how he wants to be loved. He is, by both Eric and Leo, but of course he doesn’t see that. He thinks Adam is the answer to all of his problems. Toby knows how “fake” he is and thinks he can bury that feeling with Adam and fame and fortune and all the drugs in the world. 

However, and this is the biggest SPOILER of them all, when he is finally forced to confront his past, he decides he cannot do it and kills himself by driving into a concrete wall. This is shown onstage with Toby standing in a spotlight while the little kid version of himself jumps into his arms. The beautiful way this is staged gives off the idea that Toby made the right decision when this is not only the most unsatisfying way to end Toby’s arc but also the laziest. And, of course, a really disturbing message to send to your audience. You cannot have a six hour play with a static main character! You cannot have a six hour play where said character kills himself and have the scene immediately after be Walter telling Henry he must live. Toby’s death is also super jarring because it very much feels like he died because the playwright wanted him to die. Going back to Toby’s desire to be loved and how that’s connected to his past, I think he needed to realize that the way to move on from his past is be better than his past. He wants to be loved, and he is loved, but he needs to give love as well. Eric very clearly loved Toby, but he didn’t often feel like Toby loved him as much as he did. We know from Toby’s narration how that isn’t the case and Eric meant so much to him. The Inheritance as a whole has a scene towards the beginning where Eric proposes to Toby and Toby says yes but it isn’t all that romantic, with Toby later telling Eric that he was purposely trying to trap him. In my opinion, I think The Inheritance needs to end with Toby making a grand romantic gesture towards Eric. We don’t even need to see if Eric accepts it or not. It’s better if we don’t. We just need to see that Toby has changed, or at least is trying to. It’d be better than the terrible ending we got anyways. 

Toby can’t just die without any change or even an attempt at change (writing a sequel to his play doesn’t count) because it’s a six and a half hour long play. If it was a simple 90 minutes, I could accept that more but if you’re writing a two part epic, you need to give the audience a reason to be there. 

Interestingly enough, Andrew Burnap keeps playing Toby like Prior when he’s really a Louis. 

On to Eric, who, as we are told in every other scene, is just so remarkable and special and important. Why? I guess because he’s a nice person. I still don’t know why this information is so often repeated to us. Something else that was strange was that we found out the intimate details of everyone’s past, except for Eric. We know that he’s on good terms with his parents and he lives in his grandmother’s rent controlled apartment and that’s about it. Eric isn’t really given any flaws. On paper, he’s perfect. Luckily, in performance, Sam Lilja gives him more layers than that. 

Eric is given the worst ending of all, and by that I mean in an extended narration sequence/epilogue, he is quickly married off to a nameless/faceless character we have not seen and is told he lives happily ever after. The fact that Eric is married off to someone we’ve never even heard of doesn’t fly with me. This is a long play and for Eric’s entire life to be wrapped up into a neat little bow in the epilogue was the most unsatisfying way for this play to end. Leo had a similar ending - becoming a writer and marrying a nameless/faceless character we’ve never seen. For this six hour long play to end with a quick and easy narrated monologue wrapping up literally every plot point was one of the most disappointing endings to a play I have ever seen. Everything was resolved with a quick wave of a hand because the characters say so. 

Ultimately, this play says absolutely nothing new or important. It briefly starts conversations on a lot of interesting themes and ideas but never explores them in any meaningful way. There are tear-jerker moments for the sake of wanting the audience to cry because there isn’t a single organic thing about this play that otherwise would. Likewise, for a play that keeps talking about putting the past behind you, it is utterly obsessed with the past and not moving forward from it. The cognitive dissonance in this play was astounding. 

The most compelling story in The Inheritance is between Eric and Toby and yet Matthew Lopez suddenly turns it into a play about Leo. These characters are constantly circling each other, both metaphorically and physically. The dynamic between the two of them is where the play feels its most honest. How they both grow and change in each other’s orbit is where the play has the strongest legs. If only Matthew Lopez let it walk. 

But the real problem is, The Inheritance really believes it’s saying important and meaningful things and there is no moving past that. 

I made a separate post about this but I’ll bring it up here too but every main character is played by a straight person. The actors who play Eric Glass, Toby Darling, Adam/Leo, Walter Poole/Morgan and Henry Wilcox are all straight. I get it, you cannot ask someone if they’re gay during the audition because that can easily lead into a Lee Pace situation where someone is forcibly outed when they don’t want to be. I get that.

However, this is a play about gay men in NYC with a cast of actors who are not particularly famous. This is also New York City. It’s not like there’s a lack of talented gay actors out there. I know that Andrew Burnap is friends with Matthew Lopez and you often cast the actors you work with a lot in your work, but really not a single gay actor amongst your primary characters? As much as I loved Tony Goldwyn, he was certainly cast with the hopes of bringing in a bigger audience and they could have easily cast a well known older gay actor. The Boys in the Band did it, so why not The Inheritance? 

Anyways that was a review almost as long as the play itself (if anyone actually reads this whole thing I will be shocked) and I still feel like I haven’t sorted out all my feelings on the play. So I guess the thought I’ll end on is I was really disappointed in this play as a whole. I wanted to see something very profound and important. I so badly wanted this play filled with gay characters and huge hype from London to be really outstanding. 

I like these reviews too so I’ll link them below is you want to check them out: 

Kyle Turner

Louis Peitzman

Isaac Butler (who thinks the play is about Eric but honestly after Part 2 I don’t think so)

**part of me wants to go see Part 1 again (with that ridiculously easy rush) just to see Kyle Soller, who is the main guy who plays Eric Glass because if Sam Lilja was so good, imagine how good Kyle Soller is! But there’s no way I’ll sit through Part 2 again.

[sincericida]

I'm on fire! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

ANDREW GARFIELD ━ 74th Primetime Emmys (September 12, 2022)

[jesse-eisenberg-interview]

NYFF: The Social Network Press Conference

[This is the sixth in a series of dispatches relating to the 2010 New York Film Festival.]

“It’s fundamentally the same application for myself. It became clear to me after my first reading of the script that, uh, there was going to be, uh, the version of this person, my character in the film, that he wasn’t sort of the hero, so to speak. And, but, no one sits behind a – you know, I obviously, I’m not, you never play anything sitting behind a laptop, you know, twirling your moustache. I think that, like Jesse said, it doesn’t matter – that’s the beauty of this film to me. Uh, just that you really get to pick, uh, sort of who you side with. And I had a friend who recently screened the film and said to me, I thought it was really telling things, as soon as he walked out, he said, ‘You know, I don’t agree with anyone in this movie. But I don’t disagree with this movie.’ Speaking about all the characters, I think that’s what, what kind of makes the dynamic of these three characters tick. But, uh, I feel like you defend your character. No one believes what they’re doing is wrong in life and, and, and so I feel like….”

The above incoherence, which demands a sentence diagramming army led by a Patton-like grammarian, did not come from Sarah Palin. These words were uttered by Justin Timberlake on Friday morning, who appeared at theSocial Network press conference in dorky eyeglasses (prescription or ironic aesthetic?) and didn’t seem to understand that, for once, the event didn’t center around him.

“I feel like you’re looking at me,” said Timberlake after Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield had offered thoughtful remarks on how they felt empathy for the real-life figures they were playing, “and you want me to add what they said as well. I also have empathy for other human beings, thank you.”

It is safe to say that a man who is set to turn thirty in a few months — indeed, one who has been at the receiving end of several hundred interviews — should have a better ability to speak. But as both the film and the press conference demonstrated, Timberlake is at his best when he is given lines to recite or rudimentary causes to champion.

“I don’t have a personal Facebook page,” said Timberlake later, when a reporter asked all on stage (save moderator Todd McCarthy) about their Facebook presence. “But it is nice to know that, through the world of philanthropy, for instance, that you can send out a message and, for instance, raise money for free health care for kids. I mean, it’s a fantastic thing.”

“I’ve heard of Facebook the way I’ve heard of the carburetor,” answered screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, “but I can’t pop the hood of my car, point to it, and tell you what it does.”

Indeed, the presence of Sorkin at one end of the stage and Timberlake at the other suggested a deliberately arranged spectrum of intellect. Perhaps an inside joke from the fine folks at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. But that speculation wouldn’t be fair to the three men sitting in the middle (much less Todd McCarthy, sitting to Sorkin’s right): respectively, Fincher, Eisenberg, and Garfield.

On playing Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Garfield noted that Saverin seemed “warm, yet kind of reserved.” There was very little documentation to go on, which granted Garfield some wiggle room to invent.

“I had minimal to go from,” said Garfield, “which was actually quite liberating. Even though I did try to find him in a very obtuse and uncommitted way. But it would have been really interesting. Because, of course, if you’re playing someone who really exists, and who is living and breathing somewhere, you kind of feel a massive sense of responsibility to not ruin them on screen. Because we’re all human.”

Eisenberg confessed that he had developed a greater affection for Facebook honcho Mark Zuckerberg while doing press for The Social Network.

“You have no choice,” he explained. “It’s impossible to disagree with a character that you’re portraying. We shot the movie for about five and a half months. And they were very long days. And you’re spending a lot of time working to defend your character’s behavior. So even if the character is acting in a way that hurts other characters, you still have to understand and ultimately sympathize with that character. It’s impossible to play it any other way.”

Sorkin stated that he didn’t think his script was about Facebook, pointing out that he “thought it was a movie that has themes as old as storytelling itself.” He then compared his work to Chayefsky, Shakespeare, and Aeschylus, pointing out that he hoped the deal with friendship, loyalty, and class – the same themes that these masters did. “Luckily for me, none of these people were available. So I got to write about it.”

Fincher viewed The Social Network as an opportunity to dial his pyrotechnic style down.

“There’s no problem in sublimating your desire to show off if what you’re presenting is something that you think is going to take,” said Fincher. “I mean, originally, the script began. It was in black. And you hear the voices over the black. And I kind of wondered, well, why don’t we just see the Columbia logo and start hearing them then? And hear the jukebox and hear all the people talking and let people know, ‘Pin your ears back, man. You got to pay attention.’ Because if we can start over the trailers of other movies, that’s what I want. And at one point, we talked about the notion of putting the credits over that opening scene. So it was like jukebox, cacophony, people, burger plates, two people talking over each other, and unit production manager. Information overload.”

Technology, for Fincher, represented the double-edged sword of “more options” for today’s filmmakers. He noted that a regatta sequence that appears midway through the film, containing approximately 100 CGI environmental shots, was shot on July 4th. This was less than two months before Fincher needed to have the movie locked for prints.

“The way we make movies has changed radically in the last ten years,” said Fincher. “I mean, I’m able to be in two or three different places at once. I have video tests of rehearsals that are happening in Uupsala right now that are being downloaded so that I can look at them when I go back to the hotel room. So that I can say, ‘This is how I want my parade float to appear on Sunday morning.’ I mean, obviously, that’s a great thing.”

Sorkin stated that he and producer Scott Rudin aggressively courted Facebook in an attempt to secure Zuckerberg’s cooperation on the film.

“Mark ended up doing exactly what I would have done,” said Sorkin, “which was decline. We also told him at the time that, whether they participated or not, we would show them the script when the script was done. And we would welcome any notes that they had. So we did give them the script. And their notes largely had to do with hacking. That there was a little bit of hacking terminology that I’d gotten wrong unsurprisingly. I know that there was a rumor a day or two ago that Mark had been spotted at a screening. I doubt it.”

Fincher was later asked about whether anything was sensationalized or sexed up for the movie. He gave the floor to Sorkin, who replied, “None.”

“I’m not going to sell any tickets by making this statement,” said Sorkin, “but I have to tell you that there is less sex in this movie than there is any two minutes of Gossip Girl. Nothing in the movie was invented for the sake of Hollywoodizing it or sensationalizing it. There are, as I explained, because of the three different versions of the story that were given not just in the deposition rooms, but there was a lot of first-person research that I did with people who are characters in the movie and people who were close to the event – most of whom were speaking to me on a condition of anonymity. And there were a lot of conflicting takes. So there are going to be a lot of people saying, ‘That’s not true. That didn’t happen.’ Just as they’ve been saying that since 2003. The work that I did was exactly the same as the work that any screenwriter does on any nonfiction film. When Peter Morgan writes The Queen, he’s going from fact to fact to fact. But Peter Morgan wasn’t in Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom when they were talking about their daughter-in-law. Moreover, and more important, people don’t speak in dialogue. Life doesn’t play out in scenes. There’s work that the dramatist does. But nothing was invented. Certainly nothing was sexualized in order to amp up the temperature on the movie.

The conference concluded with a chunky, pipsqueaked hack journalist — in desperate need of a haircut and elocution lessons — asking a question about whether The Social Network represented a “departure” for Fincher.

“Because it doesn’t involve somebody aging backwards or because it doesn’t involve serial killers?” replied Fincher, who offered a look as if he had just learned of a last minute dental appointment set for the next morning.

The hack journalist foolishly continued with his inane inquiry.

Fincher sighed. Then he said, “You know, I’d like to give it a lot of really deep thought, but I probably won’t.” He politely presented the hack journalist with the boilerplate answer he so desperately coveted. Then the conference came to a close.

SOURCE

[sincericida]

Andrew Garfield at the'Under the Banner of Heaven' Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals | April 20, 2022

Hello gorgeous... 🔥

[eventsandrew]

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home, set for a 17th December 2021 release date, will be the third MCU Spider-man film and promises to be the biggest and best so far. Tom Holland, who is beloved by fans, will return for his 6th MCU appearance overall, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor strange, as well as his usual co-stars: Zendaya (MJ), Marisa Tomei (Aunt May) and John Favreau (Happy Hogan). It has been suggested that Doctor Strange will fill as the father figure in Peter Parker’s life that Tony Stark originally played. It’ll be interesting to see how Strange differs from Stark in this regard and what lessons Peter can learn this time. Now, for a very long time there has been massive speculation about this film surrounding the rumors and whispers and tiny pieces of information pointing to this movie including not just Tom Holland as Peter Parker; but also Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield playing their own versions of Spider-man. This would be massive. Fans have been going crazy over these rumors, and you can understand why. For me, as a life-long Spider-man fan, I grew up with both of the other Spider-man actors and I love all of them for different reasons, so the idea that some sort of multiverse event could bring together all three spider-men of my lifetime on screen is incredible. All that being said, Marvel have not confirmed anything at all. They are being very tight-lipped about the movie, which ironically makes fans even more suspicious that they are covering up something big. The one solid piece of evidence we have came in the only trailer they’ve released for the movie so far, where, at the end of the trailer we see our current Spider-man about to face off against Doctor Octopus played by Alfred Molina, who was the main villain of the 2004 Spider-man 2 which starred Tobey Maguire. Just seeing that filled me with nostalgia for my childhood. All the speculation can be fun but it can also ruin something when it gets built up to much. Your expectations can become carried away with themselves and end up spoiling things so I’m just trying to hold back until I can sit down in the cinema and see what happens. Regardless, there’s plenty to be excited for when it comes to a new Spidey adventure, so I am definitely looking forward to this one a lot.  

[bollywoodhits]

‘Loki’ Writer Kept Up Communications With ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Team

Loki writer Michael Waldron revealed that he kept in touch with the Spider-Man: No Way Home writers to make sure ideas didn’t overlap.

It’s no secret that Loki’s season finale fundamentally changed the fabric of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the chaotic multiverse opening up in the show’s final moments, it’s certain that the heroes in the larger-than-life franchise will have to deal with the repercussions. Michael Waldron, who wrote Loki, was also tasked to rewrite Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, a project that will clearly attempt to showcase the fallout of the multiverse branching up. Another film that will potentially (but most likely) tackle the multiverse is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is expected to feature Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s respective Spider-Men showing up.

New ‘Spider-Man’ Promo Teases Peter Parker’s Journey In ‘No Way Home’

Though it hasn’t been confirmed that the previous incarnations of Peter Parker will show up, all signs point to that being the case. And with the multiverse now in disarray, there’s even more confirmation bias that we’ll see the Spider-Verse debut in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In a chat with The Playlist, the Loki writer brought up how the show’s producers kept in touch with No Way Home‘s producers to ensure both productions weren’t “screwing each other up.” Beyond that, Waldron mentioned that he personally kept up communications with one of the Spider-Man writers to make sure he wasn’t “ruining” their film. Interestingly enough, Waldron never mentions the multiverse of multiple Spider-Men, but it is clear that, at least thematically, both projects are connected.

“Your producing teams are constantly communicating with those producing teams to make sure that you’re not screwing each other up. I had the benefit on Spider-Man: No Way Home, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wrote that, I was their writer’s PA on Season 5 of Community, so I can call McKenna and get bullied by him whenever I want, but also say ‘Hey, what the hell are you guys doing? Let me make sure I’m not ruining it.'”

“So there’s communication to the extent that the creative teams themselves, the filmmakers, the writers, whoever, can become friendly. It certainly benefits the projects.”

Do you think the multiverse will impact Spider-Man: No Way Home? Comment below and let us know!

‘Loki’ Director On How She Communicated With ‘Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’ Director

Here is the synopsis for Loki:

In Marvel Studios’ “Loki,” the mercurial villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston) resumes his role as the God of Mischief in a new series that takes place after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.”

Directed by Kate Herron, with Michael Waldron serving as head writer, the new series stars Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Loki’s first season is now streaming on Disney Plus. Stay tuned for all the latest news on Loki and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.

Source: The Playlist

The post ‘Loki’ Writer Kept Up Communications With ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Team appeared first on Heroic Hollywood.

#bollywoodhits #bollywoodhitsin #celebrity # Read on : BollywoodHits.in

[briangroth27]

Spider-man Films Wish List

Since Sony partnered with Marvel Studios to share Spider-man, they have a unique opportunity to have their cake and eat it too. Spider-man has a whole multiverse of alternate Spider-men and villains they could flesh out to explore all corners of Spider-man’s web, while Peter Parker continues to make full use of the benefits of existing in the MCU. Spider-man is tied with the X-men as my favorite superhero, so there’s a lot I’d love to see in these movies!

Full spoilers (for movies, comics, cartoons, etc.)…

Peter Parker I loved Homecoming, but I do think Uncle Ben should’ve been mentioned (though I never need to see him die again). Not only would invoking his death have given weight to May’s concern for Peter and Peter’s drive to be a superhero, but if Ben were a fan of Captain America and viewed being an Avenger as an honorable thing, Peter’s obsession with joining them would’ve been about more than just trying to grow up too fast. It’d be about living up to what he thought Ben believed a hero was. A glimpse or mention of how selfish Peter was before Ben died would be nice too; they could connect his personal growth to his gravitation toward Stark (in addition to their shared scientific interest), seeing a similar moral evolution in Iron Man.

As fun as suit AI Karen was, I wish Peter had given Tony both suits back to make a true break from Stark’s toys and guidance so he could start finding his path as his own man. Maybe we’ll get a more self-reliant Peter after Infinity War. We know another MCU hero is guest-starring in Homecoming 2, but I hope it’s not another mentor figure. A major draw of classic Spider-man is his self-sufficient nature—he was a kid who wasn’t a sidekick—so I’d love to see that onscreen; we did get that in the earlier Spider-man movies, but now that he’s in the MCU they could play up that distinction in relation to the rest of the Avengers. A kid who’s just as competent as the adult heroes would make for an inspiring hero. I want Peter to be the one developing web attacks and genius solutions to problems rather than having them handed to him. Spider-like tactics like Andrew Garfield’s Spidey feeling for vibrations on his webs in the sewers in Amazing Spider-man would be great too! They should definitely look into stylizing Peter’s crime-fighting techniques and attack style so he stands out from the Avengers crowd. As much as I want Peter to forge his own way with his suits, I hope he keeps the emotive lenses he invented; they’re a great rendition of the comics' tactic of giving him expressions while masked and, with some refinement, they'd serve that purpose on film too instead of having him lose his mask in every climactic battle.

I was very pleased we finally got Peter inventing both his web-shooters and his web fluid in Homecoming and I hope that expands to practical uses of science as he takes on other supervillains. Too often Rami's movies portrayed him as a nerd just to emphasize his outsider status, but he should be using his brains to beat the bad guys just as much as he uses his fists. The animated Spectacular Spider-man had a very good balance of Peter as an outcast nerd and Spidey using science to stop evil that the MCU films would be smart to imitate. I’ve heard we’re getting Spider-Sense in Infinity War, so I’m excited to see that employed on a regular basis and to explore how it alters his perception of the world around him. Digging into how Peter’s powers affect his life and shape his outlook (beyond his responsibility to be Spider-man) would be fascinating!

Perhaps most importantly, I hope the MCU Spidey films continue to focus just as much on Peter's personal life as on his superheroics. Homecoming nearly perfectly used Peter's heroics and villain problems as metaphors for everyday life. No other MCU hero except Ant-Man has had much focus given to a down-to-Earth, relatable daily life outside their super suits (even Tony Stark seems to live in a fairly isolated world with occasional lavish public appearances), so Homecoming was a breath of fresh air in that regard. It’s also perfect for Spider-man: while being Spidey lets Peter's confidence shine in ways it can't as Parker, it also wreaks havoc on his social life. That push and pull is classic (and brilliant) and I want to see it develop as this series continues, though I hope they don't go overboard like Spider-man 2 did by making Peter's responsibility as Spidey a huge, depressing weight that crushes the fun out of everything. They should always remember that being Spidey may cause problems, but being him is fun for Peter too. While on the topic, his rapid-fire quips and jokes are necessities! I also don't think they should be afraid to make Peter a bad boyfriend for anyone who doesn't know he has responsibilities as Spidey…or even just because he has no experience in that area. It’d be realistic for Peter to have to learn how to be an equal, supportive partner in any relationship he gets in and they could set a good example for everyday relationships if he learned to fix mistakes that didn’t come from his heroic calling interrupting his dates. My biggest issue with Homecoming’s take on Peter’s social life was that Liz was essentially an idealized potential girlfriend from what we saw of Peter’s interest in her. While it’s good they didn’t play her as his “true love” because of this, they could’ve gone the extra step and made him face the reality of who she was instead of who he’d pictured from afar (though I assume they know each other at least somewhat from the debate team). They also could’ve had her shoot him down when he asked her to the dance (after ditching and disappointing her the whole movie, why wouldn’t she?)...and had him come away OK with not getting the girl both because she may’ve not been interested and because he screwed up. To the writers’ credit, they don’t end up together in the end and it seems they’re both OK with the relationship not happening. Peter getting the date didn’t ruin the film at all for me, but they could play with something like this in a future relationship.

As far as Peter's arc goes, I don't want to see Peter in high school forever. I think Tom Holland will age faster than anyone's really expecting given how long it will be between movie releases, and that's fine with me. I hope we get to see Peter finally grow up and find balance in his life. He can move forward as a young adult without having everything together, which would be just as relatable as being a kid with problems (and they can have Miles Morales take over the kid role, bringing a whole other level of social relevance to the story). In addition to the classic photographer gig at the Daily Bugle, I hope we get to see Peter at least intern (if not become a full-fledged employee) at Horizon Labs to work on cutting edge science. If the movies go long enough, Parker Industries wouldn't be out of the question for me. Maybe it shouldn’t be as global as it is in the comics, but it would certainly work as the low-budget, people-focused Stark Industries it started out as. Fun elements like the Spider-mobile could be introduced too, either through Horizon (when Peter claims to be designing tech for Spider-man), or as the licensing opportunity it was in the original comics!

Miles Morales/Ultimate Spider-man While Miles is getting a theatrically-released animated movie, he’s a hero I’d love to see in the MCU as well. Originally, instead of having Miles take up the mantle after Peter dies, I thought they should cast them as contemporaries and play it as a buddy cop comedy. It’d also work if they played Miles as a more withdrawn, insecure Spider-man once Tom Holland’s Peter has grown up a bit and started working for (or at least interning at) Horizon Labs. They could roll Peter’s successes into Miles’ arc as he tries to find his place and live up to the "amazing” Spider-man. I absolutely don’t want them to kill Peter like in the Ultimate Comics. Morales being Peter’s mentee like Peter was Tony’s isn’t a bad idea—they could team up for the first time in Homecoming 3—and I think it’d be awesome if Miles got a show on Netflix or Freeform while Peter is in the movies. 

Not only can Miles fill the “everyteen Spider-man” role as Peter grows up, but his half-African American/half-Puerto Rican heritage would make his outlook and experience totally different. He was initially nauseated at the idea of superheroics in the comics, but later felt he had a responsibility to use his powers and learned to enjoy them; that’s a very clear and cool foil to Peter’s instant excitement over his superhero status, and a Miles who doesn’t want to be an Avenger would be an entirely different storyline, particularly with the Sokovia Accords in play. Miles could also start with no one knowing his identity, since we’ve mostly skipped those classic moments with Peter. While Miles shares Peter’s wall-crawling, spider-sense, agility, and super-strength, he also has a venom blast that can be deployed by touch and the ability to become invisible through a camouflage power, which would help set him further apart from Peter’s Spider-man.

Miles has an entire supporting cast unto himself that could be mined for drama. His father Jefferson was a one-time agent of SHIELD, and maybe they could say he worked with the Parkers and/or against Chameleon. His mother Rio was in favor of Spider-man and vigilantes, contrasting with Jefferson and possibly Aunt May. I don’t know why they grafted Ganke Lee’s personality onto Ned Leeds for Homecoming, so I’m interested to see what Miles’ best friend will be like if he appears onscreen. Katie Bishop was Miles’ girlfriend at one point—until her parents were revealed as Hydra operatives (she was a sympathizer)—which could be a relevant story nowadays. Lana Baumgartner was trained by her criminal mother Lori so the two of them could team up as the Bombshells, villains with explosive powers, but Lana reformed; her villainous parent could be a solid parallel to Miles and Aaron Davis. If Fox was willing to share him, Fabio Medina could be a friend of Miles’ who’s also a popular and public superhero (they’d have to make him an Inhuman instead of a mutant here), contrasting with Morales’ secret identity. If Miles got a Freeform series, he could team up with Cloak & Dagger. On Netflix, he could look up to Luke Cage. They could keep the budget to TV standards by having Miles bounce around fights on a mostly ground level instead of swinging between skyscrapers (except for travel and special fights!); they could invent an entirely Miles-specific style of attack for him. Staying close to the ground would not only avoid the probable budget issues of web-slinging, but they could use it to play up his initial wariness about even being a superhero even after he’s put on the suit.

Venom Tom Hardy is playing Eddie Brock in the Sony corner of the MCU—it’s still a bit unclear whether Tom Holland will get to appear in these films or if they exist in their own Spider-verse—and I’m thinking this is going to lead to Brock becoming the Lethal Protector of the 90s and potentially the central anti-hero of the Sony Spider-films. I like Eddie and I’m eager to see him onscreen in his own movie (this short was a cool, unconnected and unofficial look at what a Venom movie could be), but I hope they don’t leave out his history with Spider-man and just have the symbiote go directly to Brock, even if Tom Holland can’t appear. They could mention his past with “the Bug” in passing or detail it in a prologue, but Spider-man should be a fixture of Venom’s origin.

Brock dealing with his sense of right and wrong in addition to his lack of responsibility when it came to Spider-man uncovering the truth about a story Brock had reported—he blamed Spidey for “getting him fired” instead of accepting that he should’ve dug deeper for the truth—mixed with the mind-altering alien symbiote will make for a fascinating redemption arc. I hope they start out with Venom as a full-on villain—possibly hiding from Spider-man—and have Brock rediscover his humanity as he begins to protect innocents. The line between villain, hero, and “Lethal Protector” anti-hero would be interesting to explore. What makes a person fall into those categories, can they change, and how? Brock’s Catholicism could also bring an interesting angle into any redemption arc they give him, if they choose to go that route; that religious outlook on “what makes a hero?” (or even just a good person; to him, does it “count” if we forgive ourselves and each other?) could also make Venom an unexpected foil for Daredevil. They can explore whether the symbiote is an excuse for his misdeeds or a drug habit he needs to kick. The symbiote could also be treated as a physical manifestation of Eddie’s darkest, most selfish impulses since that’s what it heightened when it was bonded to Peter. Can Eddie control it—control himself—to be a better man or is he destined to be a monster he can only point at worse evil? Carnage makes sense as Venom’s enemy in his first movie—he’s the symbiote’s even more psychopathic offspring bonded to a serial killer—and I’m excited to see them clash.

I don’t know much about Venom’s time as a solo vigilante except that he was everywhere when I was reading comics in the 90s, so I’m up for anything in that regard. Whatever they do, I’ve long wanted a subplot where Peter sees Venom dealing with a crisis on the news, so he Planes, Trains, and Automobiles his way across the country (with a heaping dose of Parker Luck giving him trouble at every turn) to get wherever Venom is to help stop Carnage (or, misreading the situation, to stop both of them), only to arrive after Venom has already saved the day. It’d just be a fun comedic subplot, so I hope that they can work that out (Peter never even has to suit up). I wouldn’t expect it from a horror-themed movie like Venom is supposed to be (which does sound like a great angle to take with Venom!), but it could be just the dose of comedy needed to break the tension every now and again.

Black Cat It’s a shame that being in Sony’s Spider-verse likely means we won’t get to see Black Cat interact with Tom Holland’s Peter. I’ve always been a fan of how Felicia Hardy prefers Spider-man to Peter and that their relationship is played mostly as a fun, flirty friends with benefits situation between two adults who respect each other; that would’ve been perfect for Amazing Spider-man 3 if Peter didn’t want another serious relationship—or even to focus on being Peter Parker—after Gwen’s death (and Felicity Jones would’ve been great as Black Cat!). If Venom doesn’t become the cornerstone of the Sony-verse, I’d like it to be Black Cat (or they could share). Not only is she more moral than he is, but we don’t have any cinematic superhero universes built around women.

It’d be cool for the movie to start out with Felicia as an excellent thief, following in her father’s footsteps (perhaps with some flashbacks to being trained by her father), and to have one of her heists be the tablet from the comics that gave her bad luck powers. She’s able to alter the fortune of anyone around her, which could make for some cool sequences as changes to fate create Rube Goldberg-like disasters for rival thieves and anyone trying to stop her (this also sets her apart from Catwoman a bit more). To keep from making it too easy for her, part of her arc could be learning to control these powers and prevent them from tripping her up as well. Perhaps they could connect learning thievery to learning to control chance; that's what skill is, isn't it? Narrowing chance to the smallest allowable factor while you rely on yourself. If they did that, we could watch Felicia flashback to her father training her as she applies his lessons to mastering her newfound gift. I love Black Cat’s latest costume; it’s sleek and sexy without being exploitative, so I hope they use it in the movie rather than her classic one. I’d love it if her movie(s) eventually found her controlling the underworld like in the current era of Spider-man comics; showing her rise to power and struggle to hold it would be a cool twist on a character that might seem like she’s headed for redemption.

It sounds like Silver & Black, featuring Cat and Silver Sable—a mercenary in the comics—will also include Chameleon, Tombstone, and Tarantula as antagonists. Knowing nothing about the film, I’m envisioning a series of heists by Felicia and Sable and counterattacks from the mobsters they’ve stolen from. I’d love a Kingpin-esque, extremely imposing and coolly calculating Tombstone like in Spectacular Spider-man to be the main villain in this, and that show is where I’d draw inspiration for the other characters too. Silver Sable could be the daughter of Silvermane, another mob boss; perhaps she’s initially against Black Cat. Felicia herself could be the daughter of the burglar who killed Uncle Ben, which was a brilliant twist in SSM, but I suppose wouldn’t matter much in a universe where she may not be able to interact with Peter (though it would be a hell of a setup for a potential crossover!). I’d guess Tarantula is an enforcer for Tombstone and Chameleon could be either a rival thief or a hitman working for Tombstone as well. They could also use Hammerhead if they wanted to throw Cat and Sable into the middle of a massive gang war.

Spider-Gwen Spider-Gwen is relatively new to comics; she’s the Gwen Stacy of Earth-65, where she was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker. She initially used her powers as Spider-Woman for popularity until her father—police Captain George Stacy—commented that the vigilante could be using her powers for good instead. Gwen changed her ways and became an idol to her schoolmate and friend Peter Parker, who turned himself into the Lizard in an effort to be like his hero. Realizing her mask didn’t free her of responsibility like she thought, this was her Great Power/Great Responsibility moment and Spider-Woman was blamed for Peter’s death, so Gwen set out to clear her name and earn the city’s trust...as she’s being hunted by her father and his cops. She’s wisecracking like Peter, furthering the common themes among the Spiders, while George’s complicated relationship with his police force—especially after he learns Gwen’s secret and decides to protect her—would give her an entirely different family dynamic. This Gwen is also the drummer in a band—the Mary Janes, along with MJ, Betty Brant, and Glory Grant—rather than being a science student, giving her a whole other world to inhabit and obligations to fulfill in her social life as they try to make it big (one of their songs, “Face it Tiger,” performed by Married With Sea Monsters, is even available to buy!). She has the classic spider-abilities, detective skills thanks to watching her dad, and she learned kung fu moves from movies, making her crime-fighting distinct from Peter’s style. Gwen has webshooters (created by retired superheroine Janet Van Dyne) that create webs out of the moisture in the air rather than cartridges, giving her a different set of potential problems with her webs than Peter and Miles would have. Gwen’s neon-noir world and punk rock sensibility would be an entirely different flavor from every other superhero movie, which would definitely be a breath of fresh air.

Since Gwen lives in an alternate MCU, they could get several actors they’ve already cast to flesh out the twisted versions of her supporting cast and enemies. For instance, Frank Castle is one of the cops trying to bring down Spider-Woman for Peter’s death and Matt Murdock is the right-hand man of the Kingpin. Peggy Carter is the leader of SHIELD on Earth-65, and if you follow my blogs, you know I’m down for any and every Peggy reappearance I can get. They can also play up the differences in villains; Gwen’s villains are distinct enough from their mainstream counterparts that they could use both at once without feeling repetitive in most cases. The heroes are different too; Gwen’s world’s Captain America is Samantha Wilson, which would be cool.

At first I thought it’d be neat if Sony’s Spider-verse were secretly Spider-Gwen’s world, but I think I prefer the option of easier connections between Venom, Black Cat, and Tom Holland’s Spider-man if Sony wants to play ball without the need for dimension hopping right off the bat. Instead, I’m thinking that billing a Spider-Gwen movie as an alternate universe to the Amazing Spider-man films would be kinda brilliant. They’d already have Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, which would be outstanding (Dennis Leary could return as George as well), and Peter helping Curt Connors become the Lizard in Amazing Spider-man parallels his death in Spider-Gwen’s world perfectly. Branching off of ASM would immediately create a Spider-verse unto itself—one that springs from movies audiences are already familiar with, no less—which could also incorporate Tom Holland’s Spider-man and any others they wanted to bring back in a massive crossover down the road! Spider-Gwen could also be done as an animated feature like Miles is getting next year, but any way we get cinematic Spider-Gwen adventures, I’m down!

Supporting Characters Aunt May We need to see May and Peter talk about him being Spider-man. Peter was an adult in the Rami films and those only hinted at Aunt May knowing the truth while Sally Field’s version never found out, so this would be an entirely new scene in addition to being very important for both characters. I loved how Homecoming left them, but I'm afraid we’ll lose that talk since Peter's next appearance is in Infinity War. Hopefully we'll get that conversation in the opening scenes of that Avengers film to establish where Peter is at that point in his life. If not, jumping back to that conversation at the start of Homecoming 2, like Homecoming did the events of Civil War, would work too. I’d definitely like her to invoke how dangerous New York City is with a reference to Ben. It’d also be cool to see her life outside of Peter (and without every guy she meets hitting on her); what is she doing with herself these days?

Ned Leeds Peter’s best friend and “man in the chair” worked really well in Homecoming and I wonder if he’ll follow his comic path to the Daily Bugle with Peter (which also includes getting married to Betty Brant). Maybe he’ll even wind up a patsy of Hobgoblin, which could leave him burned out on superheroics as things get far too real for him. That’d produce an interesting wrinkle to his friendship with Peter, especially if they came to blows while he was mind-controlled by Hobgoblin. What if it wasn’t cool for him anymore, taking away that support from Peter for a bit? I don’t want his death included in the cinematic version, though. 

Michelle Michelle’s “my friends call me MJ” does not mean she’s Mary Jane, though I wouldn’t have minded if she was. She was such a cool, funny character that I’m excited to see where she goes no matter who she is. I’d love them to continue Michelle’s social awareness; that was an unexpected way of showing that Peter’s not the only kid who thinks beyond high school. If she were to discover Peter’s secret, that’s a point they could bond over. She could also deal with classism, sexism, and racism in ways that Peter won’t be able to experience; all of which are natural outgrowths from her fearlessly calling out social injustices. Those are villains he can’t fight for her, so seeing her take them on to save herself would be great! Whatever they do with Michelle, I want to see more! I’d love it if they brought her into the comics as an adult in Amazing Spider-man or as a contemporary of the leads in Miles Morales’ Spider-man series and/or Spider-Gwen.

Flash Thompson I loved that Homecoming made Flash a smart kid; not only did it allow him to challenge Peter intellectually, but it broke the mold of jocks vs. nerds by proving that bullies can be anywhere and nerds aren’t by default good guys. I’d like them to increase his bullying beyond calling Peter names by including some 21st century tactics, even as he becomes a fan of Spider-man (which could make for some good commentary on real-life comic and sci-fi fans who seem to completely miss the values espoused by the stories they love). I wouldn’t mind eventually exploring Flash becoming the government’s Agent Venom, but that’s far in the future from where he is now. Superspy Agent Venom was a very cool development for Flash; not only did it restore his legs (previously amputated due to his military service), but he had to closely monitor how long he wore it and how angry he got, or it would take over his mind. Even though Sony’s Venom movie is semi-separate from the Peter Parker films, they could easily say that the Agent Venom suit was cultivated from a “sample recovered from a larger specimen,” obliquely referring to Tom Hardy’s Venom without having to say it outright.

Gwen Stacy I don’t need her to die ever again, so I’d like for them to introduce her into the MCU and twist that fate. The one-two-three punch of Lacey Chabert’s Gwen on Spectacular Spider-man, Emma Stone’s portrayal in the Amazing Spider-man films, and the Spider-Gwen comic series made Gwen my favorite of Spidey’s love interests (and one of his best supporting characters in general) and I’d like to see her appear here as well. It was weird they made Betty look just like Gwen in Homecoming—I think maybe she was supposed to be Gwen and it was changed at the last second—but even if she doesn’t look exactly like the iconic Gwen, I’d like Peter to meet his scientific match. Beyond being a cool character in and of herself, Gwen’s science skills allow her to actively contribute to the plot arguably more than any of Peter’s other love interests or friends can. That’s not to say everyone has to contribute directly—Michelle was certainly a great, memorable character who didn’t necessarily add to the plot, but still mattered—but Gwen’s skills allow her to, so she should. 

Much like in the ASM films, Gwen is someone on Peter’s intellectual level who he can bounce scientific ideas off of. If she isn’t in the know, we could get some fun and ridiculous excuses as to why Peter would be spit-balling ideas about scientifically curing vampirism or turning sand into glass. In their leisure time (whether she knows he’s Spidey or not), we could see them hanging out as friends, geeking out about whatever the newest scientific discovery is (or whatever their other shared interests are) and dreaming of making their own breakthroughs one day. Simultaneously, her father puts Peter in danger in a very different way than Liz Allan and Harry Osborn’s parents do since he has the law on his side, complicating things if her father catches Spider-man. If she’s on her dad’s side about Spider-man being a criminal vigilante—at best putting himself and the people around him in danger by escalating situations—having her voice that opinion instead of yet another authority figure could provoke real reflection in Peter. An opinion like that would also bring variety to the students’ outlook on Spidey in the MCU. Making Gwen a potentially frustrating scientific rival for Peter is another way to subvert expectations upon reintroducing her. Maybe she’s another intern at Horizon Labs, who is trying to scientifically enhance cops and people in general (via technology or biology) to protect them from superhero battles; cops with high-tech enhancements could inadvertently make things much harder for Spider-man. Perhaps she’s out to nullify all the villains’ powers to help protect her dad (or in his memory), and that includes curing Spider-man (at first). Completely independent of whether she’s a help or initial hindrance to Peter, Gwen could also face sexism in the STEM fields, giving her a set of obstacles to overcome to achieve her dreams entirely different from Peter’s (and hopefully, making him reflect that his white male privilege gives him advantages she doesn’t have). If they introduced Spider-Gwen’s universe as an alternate world to the MCU instead of ASM, whoever they cast as Gwen would have a great opportunity to play two distinct versions of the same character! 

Mary Jane Watson Growing up, MJ was my preferred love interest for Peter: she was pure fun and her party girl persona being a “secret identity” of sorts to cover up her troubled family life made for a nice parallel to Peter’s confidence shining through as Spider-man. That setup also made her someone who understood what it was like to have a secret identity. However, beyond making her an aspiring reporter like in Ultimate Spider-man (a role movie Betty is already inhabiting), I wasn’t sure what the classic supermodel MJ adds to the plot beyond a grounding influence and acting as a love interest for Peter. Perhaps they could play her like Betty in The Rocketeer to Peter’s Cliff Seacord: maybe the MCU MJ is a famous teen star (or a teen with a very strong social media presence) and her acting world is way outside Peter’s comfort zone. Modernizing a young MJ into an already-semi-successful actress or social media darling would also give her a more heightened world than most high schoolers live in, meeting Peter’s life as Spider-man on relatively equal terms. They could also contrast her fame and fans with his growing infamy, and the two could commiserate about bad press if the tabloids slammed her for any number of rumors. Perhaps she could use her social media platform to help out Spider-man’s image (or initially, she could think he’s the menace everyone else does, adding to his problems). If she were to aid him with her legion of followers, they could set up a youth vs. adults theme connecting to how the different generations view the media and fake news.

MJ could also be someone that helps Peter let loose as Peter rather than being worried about responsibility 24/7. The Rami movies got some good, understated mileage out of contrasting MJ’s fame with Spider-man’s infamy, and as detailed here, made a solid commentary on classism, abuse, and sexism with MJ and Gwen. A new MJ—particularly one who’s in a tabloid spotlight thanks to being an actress, an internet sensation, or both—could also take on sexism and misogyny in ways Peter simply can’t. Guys at school could expect sex from MJ for being a "party girl" and because of some modelling/acting campaign she’d done (or even just tabloid rumors), while she just wants to have fun and get out of her bad home life. Even if she is having sex, we could see her confronting guys who expect she'll sleep with anyone just because she slept with someone. If her star status includes that image, she’d definitely have her detractors as a “bad influence,” just like Spider-man is a “menace.” The Bugle could even be the one running a “what happened to wholesome teen stars?” piece, giving her and Peter a common adversary. Like Gwen, whatever they do with her, she certainly shouldn’t appear just to be Peter’s girlfriend and/or to be in danger. If they do reintroduce MJ, I definitely hope they do the classic introduction, complete with Aunt May trying to set Peter up with her (to his dismay and disinterest) and the iconic “Face it Tiger, You just hit the jackpot!” reveal.

Liz Allan I wanted to know more about what Peter saw in her beyond her being a smart, pretty, unattainable senior in Homecoming. The car ride to the dance was a perfect opportunity to at least tell us what she wanted out of life; one the writers missed completely. It’d also be nice to know what she sees (or saw) in Peter, especially since he didn’t do much but disappoint her in Homecoming (I assume they interacted more in debate club than what we saw, though). If she returns, I hope they flesh her out more. I’d also like to know what her thoughts are about her father being a criminal; might she come to understand why he did what he did and follow in his footsteps? Would she blame Spider-man for destroying her family?

Captain America I definitely don’t want all of Peter’s movies to become Marvel Team-Ups (even though we know another hero is in Homecoming 2), so if we must have the Avengers stop by, I hope they each teach Peter something new without making him their unofficial sidekick. Captain America would be my first choice for the hero in Homecoming’s sequel; I’ve thought since Civil War that had he gotten the chance to talk to Spider-man, Peter would’ve seen that Steve’s side was really the one representing power and responsibility. Cap could teach Peter about tactics and the resolve to try and do what’s right even if you fail, but if Uncle Ben were a fan of Steve’s, then Peter interacting with his Uncle’s hero could be extremely touching. If Ben saw Cap as the quintessential hero, they could even say Peter based his color scheme on Cap’s to honor his Uncle Ben; to emulate the man he thinks his Uncle would’ve wanted him to be. Of course, Steve would remind him Ben is proud of Peter for who he is, then Peter could confess why Ben is dead, and it’d be a great, raw emotional moment between the two of them! Steve’s current fugitive status could be a neat parallel to Peter breaking from Tony and going his own way. And no hero in the MCU is better set up to contrast the iconic Captain America image with his hilarious educational videos than Peter, so the endless ribbing that could come from that would be a blast! A reality/public image disconnect—particularly with Steve being a “war criminal”—could also create a bond between them if Jonah starts smearing Spider-man’s name.

Cloak and Dagger They’ve got a series coming to Freeform, but it’d be cool to see these classic Spider-man allies team up with either Peter or Miles! These teen heroes could band together to form the Champions—their answer to the Defenders and Avengers—creating a youthful bond where the kids are just as likely to hang out and help each other cope with the realities of growing up as they are to take down criminals.

Iceman and Firestar If Marvel ever makes a deal with Fox like they did Sony, it’d be excellent to see Peter meet and become Amazing Friends with the X-men’s Iceman and Firestar! That show was one of my first exposures to superheroes and getting a live-action team-up would be awesome!

Cardiac Dr. Elias Wertham became a vigilante attacking corporations for their greedy practices after his brother died of a condition which had a cure, but the corporation that created it refused to sell it because it wouldn’t be profitable. Later, he ran an underground hospital for those who couldn’t afford care. His hatred of big business and the lack of sufficient health care would be extremely relevant right now, and his noble intentions would thematically continue Vulture’s argument while challenging Peter’s concept of what the right and wrong way to achieve justice is. They could tone down his attacks on corporations to the point where no one is harmed (maybe he only steals medical supplies or cures that aren’t on the market, making them available to all) and have the Bugle still call him out as a violent, murderous anarchist in the same way some see the Black Lives Matter movement. Spider-man could initially attack him—ironically believing the Bugle when police reports also say Cardiac is a criminal—only for Peter to discover he isn’t that at all. If it’s the opinion of some corrupt officers that sends Spidey against Cardiac, exploring how the authorities tolerate Spidey but open fire on Cardiac would be another socially relevant avenue to explore with him.

Molten Man Mark Raxton is Liz Allan’s stepsister, so there’s already an easy introduction for him if Liz’s mom divorces Toomes and remarries in her new home. He could be something of a tragic villain, since his heat powers and molten skin are as much a danger to the people he cares about as he is to his enemies. His entire villainous streak could be motivated by finding a cure for his condition, making him an uneasy ally of Spidey’s by the end. If Peter ever gets to the point where being Spider-man is too much for him and he wishes he didn’t have his powers, Mark could remind him not only could it be worse, but his real power is his sense of responsibility.

Clash Spider-man busted this sometime criminal (who uses focused soundwaves as weapons), but after hearing about the circumstances that led him to crime, Peter Parker gave him a job to help rehabilitate him. Spider-man permanently defeating a villain by listening to him and having faith that he could improve (as Peter himself did) would be an awesome, unique way to deal with a supervillain.

Villains Growing up with the 90s Spider-man Animated Series, I can see why fans my age might want Peter to face off with Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, but I hope he doesn’t. He seems too low-level for Spidey to deal with. I think he should stay a Daredevil villain; there are already many more enemies for Spidey to fight anyway!

Obviously not all these villains would make for lead villains in movies (one of many reasons I'd love to get a new live-action Spider-man TV series). However, an idea I saw online a long time back was to do cold opens for superhero films, like the Bond movies do. That'd be a great way to introduce a unique villain in a “short story” that related to the themes of the film (and established where Peter is in life) and give audiences a wider look at his rogues gallery without having to dedicate a while film to villains who may not be able to carry it.

Since we probably won’t get an endless stream of Peter Parker-focused movies, splitting these villains up with Miles Morales (and/or Spider-Gwen) down the road would be great too.

J. Jonah Jameson I'd be fine with JK Simmons coming back as Jonah; more dimension than he got in the Rami films would be nice, though. If Jonah ever became mayor in the movies, that’d be a great opportunity to either really make him see the contributions Spider-man makes to the city or to play up some relevant political parallels (and to make things even tougher on Spidey). The people annoyed with Spidey in Homecoming could provide a nice foundation for the readership that would believe his lies, so “fake news” and the people who refuse to believe anything but their chosen news source could definitely be a factor in these films. I'd definitely like the MCU’s public to be more skeptical of Spidey than in the earlier Spider-man films, driven to distrust him thanks to Jonah’s own fear of men in masks. It would also be great to see Jonah eventually develop into a (slightly) more caring and understanding person, like he did as a supporting character in the Silk series!

Vulture Michael Keaton made Adrian Toomes my absolute favorite MCU villain, so I can’t wait to see more of him! I loved that he had a legitimate point about how Stark and the government treated him and making him Liz’s dad was the perfect analogy to an awkward meeting with your girlfriend’s parents. I also liked that his version of power/responsibility is that he can provide for his family through crime, so he does. I’m intrigued to see whether he’s keeping Peter’s identity a secret because he respects him, wants to kill him himself, or a mix of both. Keaton barked some of his lines, so even though he seemed sane, it felt like there was something dangerous and violent within Toomes; let’s see it unleashed! As Peter gets more confident in his web-swinging, I’d love to see an epic aerial rematch between him and Toomes. I don’t think it’d be out of character for him to continue tinkering with his suit to add new weapons to it either, scavenging the parts from other MCU battles. Whatever we get from the next Vulture appearance, I hope Peter makes some Birdman, Batman, and Falcon jokes!

Mysterio As silly as he can be (and that’s the point; he should not be revamped to be “badass,” even if his illusions are intimidating and mind-blowing), Mysterio would be a fantastic villain for a visual medium like the movies. I know he’s being looked at for a solo Sony film (which I assume would be like a Now You See Me heist film with magic…though that would work better with Peter as the “cop”), but I really want him to fight Spider-man instead. Quentin Beck was a Hollywood special effects wizard who turned to a life of crime using those same effects (plus a costume stolen from a 50s/60s sci-fi movie) and if he became a criminal for fame, that could be a cool parallel to Spider-man’s early motives. Mysterio chasing fame could also give Jonah an avenue into blaming Peter for the same thing (and a criticism that wouldn’t necessarily be untrue, at least as regarding Peter’s earliest exploits). They could play Mysterio as the Peter Parker who never lost his Uncle Ben. Mysterio’s deadly special effects could pose a great challenge for Peter’s scientific mind while giving the filmmakers an amazing opportunity to go wild with their visuals; literally anything would be possible, and for once it wouldn’t really matter how CGI something looked. The Ultimate Spider-man comic had the right idea casting Bruce Campbell as Mysterio and I’d follow that instinct in a heartbeat.

Hobgoblin Willem Dafoe was excellent as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin (even if his suit left a little to be desired), but honestly I’m tired of businessman supervillains and Norman in general so I don’t need to see any iteration of the Green Goblin onscreen again, probably ever.

That said…there is one goblin businessman I’d like to see in the movies: Hobgoblin. Roderick Kingsley was a fashion mogul who regularly employed mind control to coerce other people into playing the role of Hobgoblin, obscuring his identity so well that he actually beat Spidey and retired to a tropical island at one point. Two of his forced decoys? Ned Leeds and Flash Thompson, which would be a cool way to continue involving Peter’s classmates and friends (and Spidey clearing Flash’s name would boost Flash’s Spidey fandom while still bullying Peter). The movie could also feature Jason Macendale and Phil Urich (other Hobgoblins from the comics) as red herrings. Hobgoblin’s a criminal mastermind the likes of which we’ve never seen in a Spider-man film and the multiple false leads about who he is could give us Peter Parker trying to solve a mystery for the first time in the movies as well. If Roderick does get away with it (and I wouldn’t mind if he did), his more recent trend of licensing out his Hobgoblin persona into a franchise for criminals to buy into (and share their profits) could be a fun new wrinkle for a supervillain in a film down the road. Tom Hanks once said he’d like to play a supervillain, and Hobgoblin could be a pretty great role for him.

Doctor Octopus One villain I’d love to see redone in the movies is Doc Ock. As good as Alfred Molina was, I never needed him to be sympathetic (and being controlled by his arms was a lame retread of Green Goblin), so I’d make the MCU Doc Ock the classic mad scientist from the comics. He’d be the polar opposite of Peter: Spidey’s true opposite number and arch-enemy; a selfish, self-centered scientific genius with no sense of responsibility whatsoever. I’d toy with upgrading his abilities a bit; maybe he invents a device that gives him some of the camouflage ability octopuses have and tinkering with Pym Particles allows him to dimension-shift to a degree, mimicking cephalopods’ ability to squeeze through tight spaces (and also making him extremely hard to hit). Utilizing the most insane, maddest science and numerous master plans, Octavius would be the greatest mental challenge for Peter (without being a slouch in the physical department) and I’d love to see that showdown! I’d cast Jeffery Combs as Otto in a second.

Scorpion Mac Gargan’s already set up with a grudge against Spidey, so I’m eager for that to play out. I’d like them to mention that he was a failed private detective before he became a criminal, so perhaps he could work out Peter’s secret identity and threaten his life on a larger scale than just as a costumed supervillain. I’d also upgrade his suit to not only include the scorpion tail, but retractable wrist gauntlets that mimic scorpion pincers.

Prowler I liked Donald Glover’s version of Aaron Davis in Homecoming, even if he wasn’t as nefarious as in the Ultimate Spider-man comics. That Prowler was my favorite revamped Ultimate villain and I’d love to see Homecoming’s Davis develop into the twisted Uncle Ben figure that his comics counterpart is. He could train Miles to be a thief by claiming to only steal from bad guys, before Miles finally takes a stand against him. I definitely wouldn’t kill him like in the comics, though, and his status as Miles’ uncle would make for a great real-life parallel to family members who don’t always want the best for you.

Kraven the Hunter and Calypso Using potions to enhance his senses and physical prowess, Kraven being hired to hunt down Spider-man (or just doing it for sport) seems like a no-brainer for a minor villain in a movie. His lover Calypso could come along to introduce a mystical threat that Peter would have a hard time believing, much less defeating; it would be cool if she were the real threat between the two of them. There was a rumor Sony is looking at Kraven for a solo film, and while I guess I can see him being hired to hunt down other supervillains, I’m not sure he’s leading man material (though perhaps there’s some potential with his code of honor). I’d rather see him and Calypso fight Spider-man, and eventually getting to “Kraven’s Last Hunt,"—where defeating Spider-man isn’t enough; he has to prove he’s better by going out dressed as Spidey and fighting crime—would be a fantastic arc! I wouldn’t be opposed to him taking on animal traits thanks to Calypso’s magic, similar to his lion appearance in Spectacular Spider-man (though maybe here, the animal traits/abilities would only be temporary transformations). Regardless, his enhanced physical prowess and super-senses would be a tough challenge for Spidey to out-maneuver. Coming up with ways to dull and/or block Kraven’s senses would be a fun recurring problem for Peter. I think Oded Fehr could make an interesting Kraven. 

The Jackal Ms. Warren appeared in Homecoming and, assuming she’s the MCU version of Miles Warren, I think it’d be fun if those kids who “went missing” on field trips were replaced with clones by Ms. Warren to cover up their disappearances. It’d be funny if the professors made offhand comments about certain kids being replaced, weirding Peter out as he overheard them, until he discovered the horrifying truth. This would admittedly work better as a running gag/subplot on a Spider-man TV show, but I’d like to see it employed somewhere. Maybe it could evolve from a running gag into a Carrion virus outbreak in the school, giving Peter a mini-zombie outbreak only his science skills can cure (and preventing him from changing into Spider-man in front of his friends, causing secret identity problems). It'd be perfect as a Halloween-themed "Bond opening" for one of the movies even if it wasn't the main plot. The suave red-suited Jackal from “The Clone Conspiracy” is how I’d like any onscreen Jackal to appear (even if that wasn’t really Miles Warren).

Sinister Six I’d absolutely love it if the MCU finally pulled off a Sinister Six appearance! I wouldn’t want them teaming up with Spider-man against a bigger enemy; they should be the evil Avengers and he should be the only one who can take them on. I don’t want any Avenger assistance here either; let Peter prove he’s capable of taking all of them on and winning despite impossible odds! I’d also love it if Doc Ock’s team actually worked well together instead of inevitably turning on each other, forcing Peter into the hardest fight (and fights, including the opening salvos where different Six members pair off in various configurations) of his life with no turncoats among the villains and no help from the other heroes.

Shocker I'd like him to continue to be high-tech muscle for any villain who'll pay. He doesn't need to be a criminal mastermind, but maybe he's scheming to be a bigger player on the super-weapon black market instead of just a henchman. Maybe he has ambitions to become an arms dealer. He could be a cool recurring source for Peter (if Spidey's after one of his rivals) as well as a thorn in Spidey’s side.

Tinkerer Phineas Mason just likes building gadgets, and that’s OK! He doesn’t have to be evil, just fascinated by the possibilities of science, which gets him into trouble as he pushes boundaries. I wouldn’t want him to provide every villain with their tech, though; many of Peter’s villains are scientists in their own right and there’s no reason they can’t be self-sufficient without needing to lean on Tinkerer for everything. I’d like Mason to continue outfitting the lower-level criminals (and maybe building weapons for Shocker to sell), though.

Chameleon Perhaps Peter's parents were SHIELD agents in the MCU, which would provide a great excuse to bring in this master of disguise. Maybe Chameleon was behind the Parkers' deaths. Maybe he makes it appear that Richard Parker has survived, because he needs something from Peter. Maybe he dresses like a fake Spider-man to ruin the reputation of the son of the agents who wronged him. A master spy who can be anywhere and anyone could be the perfect opponent to force Peter to hone his Spider-sense to its fullest potential!

Lizard I'd love for Curt Connors' reptile-obsessed scientist to turn up again sometime! He can be both a mentor to Peter and a dark foil when it comes to loss, power, and responsibility as well as the use of science. They could explore his feeling of being incomplete and inadequate because of his lost arm and compare him to Peter before he got his powers: Curt's wounded pride leads to the destruction of his family just like Peter’s ruined his. Curt, however, stays on his destructive path, thinking it’s better than humanity...and better for humanity. Like Molten Man, Curt’s transformation—especially the loss of his mind—could remind Peter how lucky he is with his own mutation…or it could frighten him into thinking the spider bite could eventually turn him into the Man-Spider (and maybe the Lizard tries affecting others’ evolution, inadvertently turning Peter into the spider beast; Peter working on a cure for Connors could also accidentally result in him mutating himself). I’d also love it if they introduced Curt’s wife and son, either giving him a reason to fight for his humanity, or—as mutated lizards—helping him to spread his dream of a reptile paradise. Whatever they bring him back to do, I only ask Lizard wear his lab coat while transformed! It's a cool, iconic visual as well as a subliminal message that the lizard monster is still human inside. Curt does want to improve humanity, even as the Lizard, but at what cost? Exploring the line between man and animal could lead Peter to question just how human he is anymore, especially if he’s been acting more and more spider-like in his crime-fighting. Peter can’t go all-out against Lizard without hurting his friend, so how does he stop this vicious monster?

Sandman Perhaps stealing to get his sick daughter medical care would be too similar to Vulture trying to take care of his family through crime, but that doesn't mean Sandman still can't have an arc that takes him from uncommon criminal to unlikely ally of Spider-man. Maybe he comes to genuinely regret what he’s done, feeling that his outward appearance is showing him as the monster he’s become. A supervillain stepping back and taking a good look at themselves without anything to gain from it but a better soul—then actually doing the work to change for the better—isn’t an arc we ever see, and it could work for Flint Marko. Perhaps he views his robberies as something different (and maybe even somewhat noble in a Robin Hood/“the billionaires are the real criminals” sort of way) than the all-out world domination and murder attempted by villains like Hobgoblin or Doctor Octopus. He could have a “honor among thieves” code of conduct to set him apart from the egomaniacs and monsters. A supervillain with a growing conscience would be a cool arc that would parallel and reveal Peter’s early selfishness nicely. Peter isn’t Superman—he isn’t even close to being perfect—so he shouldn’t have a problem believing villains can change if they really want to (and having Marko change without the death of a loved one could be a cool commentary on heroes who “need” tragedy in their lives, as well as potentially showing his moral awakening to be a little purer than Peter’s). Peter should even be out there helping his enemies to walk the same path he has. Wherever they take Flint Marko, I'd like them to really dig into his powers—just how much sand can he control? Are we talking entire shorelines?—and Peter's need to use science to stop him. 

Rhino I have no problem with him being just the nearly invulnerable and less-than-intelligent muscle, but if they want to add layers to him that's cool too. They could do something like "Flowers for Rhino,” wherein he became increasingly smart. He could have a genuinely loving marriage to Oksana, like in the comics, which could parallel Peter’s problems with balancing his heroic and love lives. I’d prefer he have some version of his classic suit over another mech version, though I can see the MCU going with the latter for simplicity. Whatever they do with his personality, Rhino should be like a force of nature: truly unstoppable and deadly to everyone in his path.

Electro If they do Electro again, I'd like them to really play up his powers and have him go for godhood! I thought the tragedy of ASM2’s Electro was he was still too insecure to believe he had as much power and potential as he did, and it'd be amazing to see an Electro who knew what to do with the power at his fingertips. He could give power only to those who are loyal to him. He could plunge the eastern seaboard into the Dark Ages by taking it away. He could be everywhere, all the time, unless you’re away from electronics (which could be a fun gag about the omnipresence of cell phones). If Peter still has his Stark suit, Electro could take it over completely; maybe he could even take over whatever tech shrinks it to fit Parker and use it to force him to commit crimes or act as his enforcer like a puppet. With every surveillance network at Electro’s fingertips and his ability to move through any circuitry, Peter would have to be as low-tech and stealthy as possible, maybe even forgoing his costume to travel as Parker, to get close enough to defeat him. Electro is potentially one of Peter's most powerful enemies—a villain Spidey can't even touch and one of many that forces him to adapt his webs and use his head to stand a chance of surviving, not to mention winning—and I'd love to see him up against those odds! The sympathetic origin from Spectacular Spider-man (or a version of it) would be great as a starting point—that’s my favorite version of Electro—but I’d like to see Electro develop delusions of grandeur…then use his power to make them real.

Mister Negative He'd be cool as both a way to get May into the action—Negative's alter ego Martin Li ran the homeless shelter May volunteered at—and he could fill the “secret mob boss” role Kingpin played on the 90s cartoon (as did the much more menacing Tombstone on Spectacular Spider-man) if they wanted to go with a gang war angle. While Li has a healing touch, Mister Negative can bring out the negative aspects in anyone he touches (his morally inverting touch also gives him control over his victims), which could give us a taste of not only how selfish Peter was before Ben died, but how Peter might be with the Venom symbiote (since it seems we won't see that story in the MCU, though I hope it's mentioned as backstory in Venom). Negative would be a great way to give us a glimpse into how far Peter's come as a hero without resorting to character regression. His belief that the balance of good and evil is necessary to the universe would be a fascinating perspective that could challenge Peter’s perception of right and wrong (in addition to questioning if there’s even a point in continuing to fight), and his split personality could be a cool parallel to how being Spider-man messes with Peter’s social life. Then again, perhaps his origin would make him more appropriate for the upcoming Cloak & Dagger series on Freeform, since they were all exposed to the same tests with the Darkforce dimension.

Morbius Similar to Lizard, Michael Morbius accidentally made himself into a vampiric creature while trying to cure his rare blood disease. He'd be a cool way to bring a horror vibe into Spidey's corner of the MCU. He could be a classmate of Peter's to rival him in both intelligence and power, or like in the later comics, an employee at Horizon Labs trying to cure himself. Perhaps he could be a creature who truly scares Peter, giving Parker some fears to fight through; something we don’t often see from Spider-man in movies. Morbius has powers similar to supernatural vampires (enhanced strength and speed, night vision, echolocation, an enhanced healing factor, the ability to hypnotize people, and the ability to glide using transvection), and none of their mythical weaknesses, except for a vulnerability to sunlight (though it’s not fatal, it will weaken and burn him severely). He’s not always able to turn the people he bites into vampires in the comics, but I’d give him that power as well as his ability to “liquidize” his body, allowing him to squeeze through small spaces and elongate his limbs. What would Peter do if Morbius was forced to feed on others to survive? How would he defeat Michael if stopping him from getting blood likely meant killing him? Even though Morbius is not a supernatural vampire, his existence could open Peter’s eyes to the possibility of the supernatural, even if after struggling with something science can’t explain, he rationalizes it as science mistaken for magic.

Man-Wolf Jameson's son, turned into a werewolf-like monster by an alien artifact, could be a cool way to bring Peter and Jonah together and repair their enmity to an extent (and Jonah having to thank Spidey for saving his son would be a great moment for the web-head!). Making John Jameson—a hotshot astronaut—someone relatively close to Peter's age (maybe he’s a pilot prodigy at NASA) and something of a hero for Peter could make Pete reflect on how much more he could be accomplishing if he weren’t spending time fighting crime as Spider-man. They could also contrast John being celebrated as an American hero with Peter being unable to tell anyone how much he's done for the city. That'd give Peter a reason to dislike John removed from any real reason, much like Jonah dislikes Peter (and like Flash hates Peter but is a fan of Spider-man). How much would Peter hate being similar to JJ and Flash? Saving John from alien technology would also be a great challenge for Peter’s already brilliant mind; I’m sure he’d be geeking out at the chance to work with such advanced, otherworldly technology.

Stunner This villain who uses a holographic projector to create her idealized appearance would be a good high school enemy! Increase her holographic powers to include force field projection and she'd have offensive capabilities as well as a neat way to hide her identity. She’d also be a good opportunity to explore bullying in addition to what Flash dishes out; that’s both a villain Peter can’t beat and a good parallel to how he deals with his own torment at the hands of his classmates. They could have Peter examine whether his banter in fights is bullying (Max Landis has said it is, I’d say it isn’t, and Peter can ask himself that question) and whether he should be doing more to understand his villains’ pain before just attacking them. She could also prompt Peter to see the other bullied kids at school and try to do something to help as Peter. Her idealized self would also be a perfect foil for Spider-man being the outlet for Peter’s confidence.

Hydro-Man He sometimes seems like just a watery version of Sandman, but what if he were reconfigured as a killer who could strike his victims anywhere? Walk by a fire hydrant on the street? He's there. Have fire sprinklers in your place of business? You're not safe, even with everyone around you. Have a sink or shower in your apartment? He can get into your home, no matter how many locks you've got on your door. The 90s animated series had him stalking Mary Jane with some of these methods, and an unstoppable killer like this might be best saved for a Venom sequel.

Morlun Best used in a Spider-verse crossover, this nearly-immortal, vampiric monster who consumes the life force of spider-powered people across the multiverse would be a crazy cosmic-level villain for Peter to face. Peter would even have to recruit a whole army of Spider-people in an epic Avengers-styled adventure, showcasing a wide-variety of worlds and Spider-men (and women). Letting Peter see who he could've become under different circumstances (even though some of the Spiders aren't Peter at all) would be illuminating both for him and us. As Morlun is almost a god, discovering how to beat him—and how to lead a team—would be very cool in the later portions of Peter's arc; it’d probably be the ultimate test of Peter’s accumulated skills.

Shriek Once insane and romantically obsessed with Carnage, my first thought was that they could play her as Spidey's (or Venom’s, given her longtime connection to Carnage) version of Harley Quinn. Obviously I wouldn't want a total ripoff, but maybe making Shriek—who has sonic blasts—a goofily serious villain could make for a fun, unique challenge for Peter or Eddie. However, given Shriek’s obsession with motherhood, making her the overbearing and controlling mother of one of Peter’s classmates would be a cool update. That would allow them to play her as a clever foil to Ben and May. Like the classic comics May, she could be paranoid about her child’s safety, but unlike May, she’d resort to violence to protect her kid. Her ability to create chaos and bring out the fear, anger, and hatred in people could produce some interesting challenges for Peter: how does he stop a crowd of innocent civilians from hurting the uninfected among them without hurting the attackers as well? What if he gets infected; how much damage is an angry, uncontrollable, super-powered Spider-man going to do? Does she unleash these powers on Peter’s school after her child is severely bullied, turning the bullies’ hatred against themselves? Where is the line between protecting her child and going so far that not only are others hurt, but her child can’t cope well enough to defend his or herself at all? Does Spider-man cross that line by saving the city over and over again, to the point where we can’t help ourselves? What if she purposefully infected her child to enrage them to defend themselves? Shriek could be the Peter who never shirked her responsibility, taken to a detrimental extreme.

Spot Spot's transportation portals all over his body could make for a neat, maze-like puzzle for Spidey to solve in one of his strangest adventures. Like Mister Negative, he too might be better suited for Cloak & Dagger, since his powers came from studying Cloak’s dark dimension in the comics. If he were to fight Spider-man, it’d be cool to pit Peter (or Miles) against a villain their spider-sense can’t detect, since it can’t sense attacks coming in from alternate dimensions. Dimensional warping would also allow him to hit Spidey from multiple angles at once, as well as deflecting attacks through various portals. 

Alistair or Spencer Smythe/Spider-Slayers Maybe the spider-slayers are a little too similar to Sentinels in X-Men, but I wonder if there's a way to reconfigure them as smaller (but no less lethal) bugs that can be anywhere and see everything. They'd be like the spider drone network set up by the Superior Spider-man (Otto Octavius) in the comics, and perhaps it'd be best in a movie if Otto simply called them spider-slayers as a shout-out to the Smythes.

Big Wheel I really have no idea how to make Big Wheel work outside of a gag appearance, but that'd be enough for a Bond-styled opening. I've always thought it'd be funny to have him rolling down a street, wreaking havoc and shouting "No one can stop me!" Spidey swings up, tries to web Big Wheel's Ferris Wheel-styled vehicle to halt him, but the webs snap. Big Wheel proclaims no one can stop him again...as he plunges off the pier into the ocean. Before going to rescue him, Peter muses that he though Big Wheel was boasting, not yelling frantically that he'd lost control of his vehicle. 

 The World Midtown High I really hope all the apathetic staff returns! They were a great, unexpected source of comedy and I’d love to see more of them. The other students were great too; Betty Brant’s deer-in-the-headlights news reports were a perfect, realistic high school layer to the environment! All the high school stuff clicked perfectly with the superhero themes, giving the heroics relatable metaphors and grounding them in a realistic world. Let’s see that continue!

The Daily Bugle I’d love for the Bugle to be more than a set for Jonah to rant about Spidey. It’d be cool if it became a place where we could see the varied reactions to Spider-man from the adults in New York, while we see the younger generation’s reaction at school. Robbie Robertson, Glory Grant, and any number of other characters could pop up to fill us in on how the common man sees Spider-man, both in relation to other heroes and as a solo hero. Robbie could push Spidey as the hero he is, Glory could mentor Betty in terms of where her career could take her, etc. The Bugle is practically begging for a MCU parallel to fake news with its anti-Spider-man message, and building on some of the public’s annoyance with Spidey in Homecoming would allow for some brilliant social commentary. The Bugle can also question the validity of the government having its own team of superheros in the Avengers. Is there a problem with state-sponsored heroes?

Horizon Labs Max Modell, Sajani Jaffrey, Anna Maria Marconi, and Co. would be great additions to the Spider-man corner of the MCU! Beyond the bleeding edge super-science Horizon would introduce and the potential path for Peter’s future as a scientist, Max would be a significant scientific mentor for Peter (and one who does not turn into a supervillain). The Lab’s staff is very diverse, continuing the real world look of Midtown High in Homecoming. The staff would also provide a variety of non-villainous perspectives on science for Peter to look up to or disregard, getting him to consider things beyond Tony Stark’s way of doing things. It’d also be interesting to explore not only what inventions they could use to update and aid the city (creating problems for Spidey, no doubt), but whether they should be helping the wall-crawler to more efficiently stop bad guys. Would that make him a corporate-sponsored hero? Should that be a thing? 

The NYPD The police reaction to Spidey should be varied as well. Introducing Captain George Stacy as someone hunting Spidey and eventually mentoring him would be very cool. Jean DeWolffe was eventually a Spider-man supporter in most versions, but her tough-as-nails attitude could work against him as well. Her partner, Stan Carter, could admire Spidey in a twisted way before becoming the masked serial killer Sin-Eater. Yuri Watanabe, who is also the vigilante Wraith, could be a cool parallel to Spidey acting outside the boundaries of the law, particularly if he ever leaves the Avengers and ignores the Sokovia Accords. Carlie Cooper, a police forensic specialist and sometime love interest of Peter’s, could put his secret identity in danger while also eventually resenting being a target because of her association with Spidey. Since Spider-man plays more in the everyday world than most of the MCU heroes, I’d like the local cops to have their own reactions to him rather than just treating him as another Avenger. The same should go for New York’s civilians.

SHIELD What about the Sokovia Accords? Was Peter unofficially drafted into service by Iron Man, as I've suspected? Is he considered a child soldier? If he leaves the Avengers, does he automatically become a fugitive? Would SHIELD put all his closest family and friends in danger to force him back into line? 

Other Heroes Let’s see Spidey interact with the Defenders! I think it’d be funny if the youngest hero were also the one from the biggest stage as an Avenger. Alternatively (or additionally), a Miles-Spidey meeting the Defenders could be cool as well, since they’re almost all representative of the downtrodden and ignored in society. Miles getting lessons on being a hero from the Defenders would give him an entirely different outlook than hanging out with the Avengers, making his point of view that much more different from Peter’s when they team-up..

Animated Features Miles is getting one next year, but what if Sony were to make a series of standalone animated Spider-man films that weren’t in any continuity, then wrapped them together in a Spider-Verse adaptation? Spider-verse dealt with Morlun’s family of immortals absorbing the life-force of people affected by the Spider-totem to sustain themselves. These Inheritors, mainly Morlun, were somewhat vampiric, extremely hard to defeat, and terrifying. They crossed into multiple realities to hunt down the spiders of each, even really clever continuities like the Marvel vs. Capcom video game and Spider-man’s newspaper strip.

Since they’d be animated, it’d be easy to mix them with every version of Spider-man from his numerous animated series (along with those from the comics). You could animate Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, Nicholas Hammond, the Japanese TV Spider-man, and the Broadway Spider-man into this too. We could get Spider-Ham and a sentient Spider-mobile (alias: Peter Parkedcar)! In fact, an animated Spider-verse seems like it’d be the most feasible way of adapting the story into a movie. Regardless of whether they culminate in Spider-Verse or not, the standalone animated films I’d like to see most are as follows:

Spider-man Noir Taking place in an alternate 1930s, Peter Parker Noir is a chance to bring a bit of The Shadow and Batman the Animated Series to the Spider-verse! Peter was affected by an occult artifact in this universe, granting him similar powers to the version we know (though he can create organic webbing). Both his job as an investigative reporter and his main criminal targets being gangsters would make for the perfect throwback to a 30s/40s crime movie. The Parker of this world didn’t learn “with great power, there must also come great responsibility,” but rather “If there is too much power, it’s the responsibility of the people to take it away,” giving him a slightly different outlook and reason for taking action. This Peter also struggles with killing villains, giving him an internal battle that the mainstream Peter doesn’t have. The villains—sometimes patterned after classic movie monsters: Vulture as Dracula, Hammerhead as Frankenstein’s Monster, Goblin as a Wolfman, etc.—are distinctive and the pulpy, film noir vibe is very cool. Spider-man Noir’s struggle for the rights of the people and distrust of anyone with too much power would be a very timely story for today, told in the context of our history.

Spider-man 2099 Miguel O’Hara is the Spider-man of the future and lives in a technologically advanced wonderland that would make a great animated feature. It’d be cool to explore Peter’s legacy in this potential future! Irish-Mexican Miguel was a geneticist working at Alchemax until a genetic bonding experiment caused the death of the person Miguel was testing. Disgusted, he tried to leave, but his boss secretly addicted him to a drug in the hopes that he’d have to stay (Alchemax was the sole manufacturer), but Miguel performed the same genetic test to cure himself of the addiction, giving himself powers when his supervisor sabotaged the experiment in an attempt to kill him. Miguel’s DNA was spliced with a spider’s, giving him the classic Spider powers in addition to a healing factor, enhanced vision, telepathy, organic webs, talons, and fangs. His high-tech suit also allows him to glide. They could go crazy with his futuristic villains, making them stark contrasts to the present-day Spidey’s rogues. In at least one version of his future, Miguel was instrumental in saving, rebuilding, and enhancing the entirety of society, allowing for an epic end-of-the-world story that could actually have a hopeful, definitive ending where Spider-man improves the world for good. They could also play with his adventures in the past trying to maintain his future if they wanted to.

Lady Spider May Reilly lives in the Victorian Age on her Earth and uses a steampunk suit she designed to fight crime. She says the spider that bit her (encountered in a cage in her father’s study) taught her to let no one cage her, which would be a powerful feminist message. She doesn’t have super-powers, instead relying on her intelligence and her inventions to defeat the Six Men of Sinestry and other nefarious criminals. She was the only woman in her university class and achieved three degrees. As a wealthy, brilliant heiress and adventurer, she’d be the perfect character to build a classical—but socially updated—adventure around. There aren’t many Victorian superheroes in film, and a Lady Spider animated movie would stand out from the pack while being visually outstanding.

Spider-Girl The teenage daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane in a near-future alternate world, May “Mayday” Parker became Spider-girl when Norman Osborn’s grandson restarted his family’s Goblin legacy. Retired after losing a leg, Peter followed his Aunt May’s example in not wanting his daughter to be Spider-Girl at first. The chance to see how Peter and his supporting cast might end up—and how the world might be improved by his adventures—would be very cool; a way to give an ending to his character and a passing of the Spider torch without it needing to be the ending. May having a father who used to be a superhero himself would also be an easy way to replicate the Peter/Tony relationship, or at least the function it served: May would have someone who could say no to her, reinforcing her teenager status despite her great power. It would also be a fairly fresh relationship, with only Hope Van Dyne and Hank Pym having explored that before. Peter could give practical advice as a former hero and he’d have insights into some of the villains she faces, while she could also prove that it’s a new age and she’s the right hero for it.

 Other Notes Another thing I'd like to see is more self-control from Sony's promotions department. Homecoming didn't have it as bad, but the trailers for both Amazing Spider-man films heavily featured the end credits tag. This would've been like advertising the first Iron Man with Nick Fury and the Avengers Initiative front and center; I'm sure this contributed to the misconception that Amazing Spider-man 2 was nothing but a stepping stone to the Sinister Six, when in reality it is a full and complete movie unto itself. Across the Sony Spider-verse, I hope they're more careful about what they put in their trailers; I'd prefer it if nothing past the runtime’s halfway mark made it in.

I haven't gotten to watch Marvel's Spider-man animated series beyond the pilot, but I'm excited to see Peter and Miles as contemporaries and how Gwen will work as a third Spider-hero. Peter’s focus on science is brilliantly applied—the scientific method is how he calmed himself down after the spider bite and provided the framework for his origin story—and I can’t believe that idea wasn’t used before. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more! You can find official, free uploads of the origin story shorts here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and the pilot here. I do wish it had more of a theme song, but I’m glad there’s a new Spider-man cartoon on the air!

It'll never happen, but my biggest Spider-man wish would be the return of Spectacular Spider-man. It boasted excellent fights, genuine humor, and a healthy dose of science, responsibility, and heroism from Peter, as well as excellent representations of almost all of Peter's friends and enemies (and Spider-man himself, perfectly voiced by Josh Keaton). That show is my favorite version of the Spider-mythos anywhere and it's a shame we didn't get to see the full version of Greg Weisman's extensive plans.

I’d also love a live-action series to really be able to explore and flesh out all the supporting characters and villains, but that’s unlikely to happen now…at least with Peter as Spidey. However, I think a Miles Morales Spider-man series could be a great addition to either Netflix’s Defenders lineup or to Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger corner of the MCU, so that those three could team up with Ms. Marvel and form their own teen supergroup, the Champions. You could focus the series on Miles and his supporting cast, while Peter drops in occasionally (playing up Miles’ feelings about following in Parker’s footsteps) and the two Spider-men could split the classic villains so they all get a moment in the sun.

I'm very excited for the upcoming PlayStation 4 Spider-man game! The trailer looks outstanding and I'm hoping they find a way to make playing as Spidey feel fresh. Even if it’s something similar to Spider-games of the past, what we’ve seen so far gives me hope this is going to be the best one yet!

What do you want to see from the web-slinger’s world?

[sincericida]

Andrew Garfield is so beautiful it hurts...

Andrew, please 🥺

(X)

[sincericida]

Cheers to your eyes, windows of the soul. 🥂

[sincericida]

So beautiful babe...