Spider-Man may frequently swing to straight to the top of the box office these days, but the wall-crawler’s journey to the big screen wasn’t an easy one. Once upon a time, Avatar director James Cameron worked on a treatment, and while that didn’t come to pass (which may not be the worst thing in the world given what we know about it), he did make a key change to 2002’s Spider-Man.

During a recent interview with IGN to promote his new movie You Should Have Left, screenwriter David Koepp explained how Cameron’s vision ended up influencing what Sam Raimi delivered. 

“I never saw any previous versions from development because it had just come out of litigation as I recall,” Koepp explained. “And so if there were other versions, they were like Cannon in the ’80s or early ’90s, but (Cameron’s) treatment was very influential.”

“I had a lot of my own specific thoughts about what the movie ought to be, because I had been a Spider-Man fan as a kid and young adult. But his treatment, it just took it seriously. It took Peter seriously as a character and it took a superhero movie seriously as a genre. And you hadn’t seen that before.”

“He had some very good ideas in it,” Koepp continued. “I like the organic web-shooters, which some people liked and some people didn’t, but that was his idea and I was happy to use it.”

Those organic “web-shooters” would eventually find their way into the comic books, but have since been replaced with the classic, far more popular mechanical versions both in those and on screen. Still, it made sense at the time, and is something Koepp was clearly happy to borrow for Spider-Man.

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our predictions for Spider-Man’s MCU future!
 

10. Hunted By Kraven

Quentin Beck framed Spider-Man for his murder, so Peter Parker is bound to be a wanted criminal now. Something tells us his fellow Avengers will know better than to try and take their fellow hero down, but Kraven the Hunter targeting the web-slinger definitely makes sense for Spider-Man 3. 

He could be reinvented as a mercenary or government agent, but Kraven wanting to make a name for himself by tracking down his deadliest foe to date would be the perfect premise for this next chapter.

We’re guessing that Mysterio is pulling the strings from behind the scenes as there’s no way he’s really dead, but that’s a reveal which is surely going to be saved for a post-credits scene (we’ll get to that a little later, but he could be about to take on a sinister new role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). 
 

9. Spider-Man: Wanted

We alluded to this above, but the way Spider-Man is now perceived in the Marvel Cinematic Universe won’t be as a hero, but the “menace” from the comic books. Despite constantly putting his neck on the line to protect New York City, the public fear him, the police chase him down, and the press – courtesy of J. Jonah Jameson and The Daily Bugle – brand him as a criminal. 

That’s been Spidey’s status quo since pretty much the start, and it’s fitting that the uncertainty surrounding whether he really killed Mysterio and attacked London will make that the case here too. 

However, with his identity revealed to the world, it’s hard to predict what this will mean for Peter’s relationships with characters like Aunt May, Ned, and MJ, not to mention his high school future.
 

8. Spider-Man Teams Up With The Human Torch…

One of the most endearing and memorable friendships in comic books is Spider-Man’s love/hate relationship with the Human Torch. They’re constantly pranking each other, and squabble like brothers, but when the you-know-what hits the fan, their team-up always end with them saving the day. 

Marvel Studios would be wise to take advantage of this on the big screen, and with it looking unlikely that Spidey will get to fight crime alongside Daredevil any time soon, this would be the next best thing.

Spider-Man has always had an interesting relationship with the Fantastic Four, and it was in the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man that he attempted to join their ranks. A meeting with the Human Torch would set the stage for something similar, and a possible new role for Spidey in the MCU.
 

7. …And (Briefly) Joins The Fantastic Four

We’ve had three Fantastic Four movie (and one which was never even released in theaters due to it being such a disaster), and they’ve all been terrible. We have complete faith in Marvel Studios successfully rebooting the franchise, but how can they convince moviegoers to give them another chance?

Well, an A-List cameo from the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe would certainly help matters, and that’s where Spider-Man comes in. If he teams up with them – or even becomes a temporary member of the group – then interest will spike, and we’d love to see those Future Foundation costumes on screen.

Looking even further down the line, how cool would it be to see the New Fantastic Four assemble? That line-up consisted of Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Hulk, and Ghost Rider. 
 

6. Entering The Multiverse

That Fantastic Four reboot is a long way off, so which Marvel Studios movie could Spider-Man swing into? Well, we’re pretty confident that it will be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness! 

Sam Raimi is no doubt chomping at the bit to take another crack at the web-slinger, and seeing as Kevin Feige is a fan of JMS’ iconic Amazing Spider-Man run, we’re guessing he knows how entertaining team-ups featuring Spidey and the Sorcerer Supreme have the potential to be. 

If Tom Holland’s Peter Parker gets the opportunity to travel through the Multiverse, how much do you want to bet he briefly stops by the Spider-Verse and even gets to been Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man?
 

5. Spider-Man Dons The Symbiote

This isn’t necessarily something we’ll see in the MCU, but when Disney and Sony Pictures reached that new deal, it was confirmed that Spider-Man is going to swing between two worlds. 

An appearance in movies like Morbius and Venom: Let There Be Carnage is unlikely, but beyond that, we would be shocked if Spidey doesn’t finally cross paths with Eddie Brock…and get a new suit in the process. It’s a team-up/battle fans want, and not one that would necessarily have a negative impact on what he gets up to in the MCU. 

However, we certainly wouldn’t say no to seeing the hero bring that black costume with him when he does return after spending some time in the SUMC as “Venomized” versions of characters like Captain America, Wolverine, and Captain Marvel would make for a memorable sight. 
 

4. The New Avengers

Recently, a rumour started doing the rounds which claimed that Captain Marvel 2 will set the stage for the debut of the New Avengers (who will presumably assemble to tackle a Secret Invasion).

Plans are said to be in place for Spider-Man to be part of the team, and it’s about time he get to serve as a full-fledged member of The Avengers. After all, he helped save the planet in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and his dynamic with Carol Danvers in the comic books is something which is undeniably worthy of being brought to the big screen as well. 

We’re not sure how Peter’s newfound criminal status will affect his membership, but assuming he gets some help in Spider-Man 3 (from Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, we’re betting), his name could be cleared.
 

3. A Battle With The Sinister Six

The Vulture, Scorpion, Mysterio, Shocker…Spider-Man has come face to face with quite a few villains in the MCU, and while there have been no overt teases, it’s hard to escape the feeling that the Sinister Six are somewhere on the wall-crawler’s horizon. Quentin Beck could lead this iteration, though we would like to also see the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus!

Regardless of the roster, the biggest question we have is whether this battle would be produced by Marvel Studios…or Sony Pictures. The former would be preferable, of course, but who knows! 

Sony has wanted a Sinister Six movie for a while now, so it could boil down to whether they would be happy for this villainous team-up take place in a standalone spinoff or one of Spidey’s MCU adventures. 
 

2. Maximum Carnage

We mentioned a meeting between Spider-Man and Venom, and while it’s easy enough to imagine some of the ways that could pan out, we’d be shocked if it doesn’t lead to “Maximum Carnage.”

That sounds like a good title for an eventual event movie from Sony which incorporates characters like Spider-Man, Venom, Carnage, and Morbius, and we’re sure that more big names could be added to that line-up over the coming years as the SUMC continues to expand (Black Cat, perhaps?).

Sure, we wish Marvel Studios were in charge of this one, but as Spider-Man has the ability to leap between these two cinematic universes, this would be a spectacular way for Sony to take advantage of that.
 

1. The Bombastic Bagman

We’ve talked a lot about the Fantastic Four in this feature, but regardless of whether the Human Torch flies into a future Spider-Man movie or the web-slinger swings by the Baxter Building in their reboot, we have to see the Bombastic Bagman on the big screen at some point, right? 

It would be an amazing (no pun intended) moment for comic book fans, and something we can definitely imagine Tom Holland being able to pull off. If the hero does try to join the team and gets turned down, him getting a Fantastic Four costume like this would be fun, tongue in cheek way to wrap up his desire to be part of the group…while also kicking off a rivalry with Johnny Storm!

Kevin Feige is as geeky as the rest of us, so we would be shocked not to see this brought to the MCU…

According to a new rumour being shared online, Marvel Studios may have plans to introduce Firestar in the not too distant future. There’s no word on whether this would take place on the big or small screen, and this feels like another of those claims that a random character is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (without providing any insight into when or where it will actually happen). 

With that in mind, this should be taken with a pinch of salt, it would definitely make a lot of sense. 

Introduced in NBC’s Saturday morning cartoon Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Firestar teamed up with the web-slinger and soon became a fan-favourite. That led to her making the leap from the screen to the comic books (rather than the other way around) in the pages of 1985’s Uncanny X-Men #193. She’s since helped found the New Warriors and remained allies with Peter Parker.

It’s feasible we could see Firestar in Spider-Man 3 or Marvel Studios’ eventual X-Men reboot, but we’re very much going to have to wait and see for now. However, if there is any truth to these claims, then it definitely appears as if Kevin Feige is starting to take advantage of those Fox characters. 

WIth any luck, that will lead to the X-Men and Fantastic Four showing up in the MCU ASAP!

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10 X-Men spinoffs we want to see in the MCU!
 

10. Origin

This often quite divisive series was adapted for all of five minutes of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but an actual movie based solely on this series could be something very special indeed. It told the tale of the young, sickly James Howlett, and how he became the man known as Wolverine.

Set in the late 19th Century, the supporting cast includes Dog Logan (James’ half-brother and the son of an abusive drunk who manages the grounds of the Howlett’s estate) and Rose, the love of the young Wolverine’s life. Unlike X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Dog isn’t Sabretooth, but keeping that particular alteration to the source material could actually work pretty well for the MCU. 

If Marvel Studios is looking to take its time bringing Wolverine back to the big screen, then opening with a story (possibly in a Disney+ TV series) could flesh the character out in a big way.
 

9. Excalibur 

Captain Britain’s big screen debut in the MCU is long overdue at this point, and while a different take on Exalibur can currently be found in the Marvel Comics, we’d love to see the original crew.

Some of the most notable X-Men to have been part of this group include Nightcrawler, Juggernaut, Daxxler, Phoenix (Rachel Summers), and Kate Pryde, not to mention Captain Britain’s sister, Psylocke (we’d want to see the original here). This team went on some crazy adventures together, mixing some of the X-Men’s foes with the interdimensional threats faced by Captain Britain.

This movie would also take place solely in the UK, and that alone could lend this adventure a fresh feel.
 

8. Age Of Apocalypse

The Age of Apocalypse timeline has been revisited numerous times over the years, and was created when the son of Charles Xavier travelled back in time to kill Magneto. However, when Xavier died protecting his former friend, a new timeline was created where Magneto came to believe in his late friend’s dream of a peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.

However, Apocalypse chooses this moment as the perfect time to begin his world conquest and takes over North America, killing millions of humans in the process. Now Marvel Studios has introduced the concept of time-travel and alternate timelines, there’s no reason at all we couldn’t end up heading into this period and seeing what potentially becomes of Marvel’s mutants. 

They’ll need to be established before we head down this route, but the spinoff potential is obvious.
 

7. Cable

Cable is the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey (well, her clone), and was brought up in the future due to being infected as an infant with a Techno-Organic Virus. As he grew up in the aforementioned Age of Apocalype timeline, there are ways these stories could all be intertwined in the MCU. 

Josh Brolin’s Cable was, of course, introduced in Deadpool 2, and we’re sure Marvel Studios would be happy to work with him again in some sort of spinoff which leads into an “AOA” event. 

A potentially even better option is the adaptation of a story which saw Cable take a young mutant baby into the future – the first one born in several years – in order to protect her from the insane Bishop. We see Hope Summers grow into a young adult under Cable’s care, and that could make for a great post apocalyptic movie. After all, the X-Men love their desolate futures!
 

6. X-Factor

A movie based on X-Factor has the potential to be something massively different for the MCU. While the team started off as a spinoff featuring now older versions of the original five X-Men working together when the likes of Colossus, Storm and Wolverine were introduced, Peter David’s take (which focuses on the mutant detective agency X-Factor Investigations) would be awesome.

That series featured a very diverse team of heroes, and the detective agency is led Jamie Madrox, the villain turned hero known as Multiple Man. In some ways, X-Factor would work even better as a TV series, and could be a good fit for ABC, FX, or another non-Disney+ network. 

Marvel Studios has countless mutants at their disposal, so why not make good use of them here?
 

5. Starjammers

The Starjammers are a team of space pirates led by Cyclops and Havok’s father, Christopher Summers. When they were just children, the plane they were travelling in with their parents was attacked by an alien ship, and so their mother strapped the boys into their only parachute and pushed them out of the plane to safety while they were abducted. 

While she would later die (murdered in front of his very eyes in fact), Christopher stayed in space and became a hero of sorts, leading a varied and eccentric team of aliens into battle.

This admittedly sounds somewhat similar to Guardians of the Galaxy, but the two teams aren’t really that much alike. Exploring the Summers lineage should be a priority for Marvel Studios, and once we meet Cyclops, a spinoff exploring his past and parents could be massively rewarding.
 

4. Alpha Flight

If Marvel Studios is interested in bringing yet another superhero team to the big screen, then this fairly obscure group of Canadian superheroes may not be a bad place to start.

Described as Canada’s answer to The Avengers, most members have something which pays homage to a piece of the country’s history. They were initially introduced as part of Wolverine’s back story as employees of Department H, a fictional branch of Canada’s Department of National Defence that deals with super-powered villains.

Introducing them in a future Wolverine movie or even making him part of the team would increase its chances at the box office, and they’re an interesting, diverse group regardless. 
 

3. Daken: Dark Wolverine

Daken is Wolverine’s son who he only actually found out about a few years back, and he’s not a nice guy.

In fact, he’s so bad, that his father recently drowned and killed him to stop him hurting anyone else. For a time though, Daken tied to walk the path of a hero, but only for selfish means. With a few alterations here and there, this is a character who could definitely be retooled for the big screen.

Fox missed a trick by failing to explore Wolverine’s wider ties to both his past and children, and if we do get to follow his story from the very start, then laying the groundwork then for a Daken story down the line could be a smart move. It would also result in a potentially fun side adventure. 
 

2. X-Force

There are literally dozens of versions of X-Force, but the most recent – which saw the team portrayed as a hit squad of sorts handling the jobs deemed too dirty for the X-Men under the orders of Cyclops – is perhaps the most interesting, and arguably best suited for the big screen.

The huge number of mutants who have made up X-Force over the years means that we could see new takes on familiar faces or the introduction of many fan favourites who haven’t yet had chance to shine on the big screen. We know Ryan Reynolds was once keen to make this happen, so perhaps this is where his version of Deadpool could finally be brought into the MCU. 

Time will tell on that front, but Marvel Studios would be crazy to leave this team of the shelf…
 

1. Old Man Logan

Old Man Logan was an incredible story arc by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven which took place in the near future after the fall of Earth’s superheroes. When pretty much every villain ever decided to team-up, it didn’t take long for the likes of the Avengers and X-Men to fall, and Wolverine was tricked by Spider-Man villain Mysterio into slaughtering his own teammates in the X-Men.

After attempting suicide, he went into hiding and started a family. However, years later, Hawkeye seeks him out and a battle against the Red Skull and a family of inbred Hulks kicks off in a truly epic story. Aside from a few Sony characters, Marvel Studios could adapt this in a way that Fox never could with Logan, and it could take place in the future or another reality. 

Whatever the case may be, exploring the beginning and end of Wolverine’s life would be amazing.