Even though Spider-Man: Homecoming is kicking off the third series of Spider-Man movies in just 15 years, there's a concerted effort being made to traverse through territory that the previous two series didn't explore. In his first outing after Captain America: Civil War, this iteration of Peter Parker is battling villains like The Vulture and The Shocker who haven't appeared on the big screen before, and now Tom Holland has expressed interest in a future Spider-Man movie adapting The Clone Saga, the infamous storyline Marvel published in the mid-1990s. Holland stated:
There are so many things we have not seen in Spider-Man yet ... I want to use bad guys never seen in movies. The first films were so traditional, and so scrupulously followed the character's classic plot ... So there's a lot of stuff left in stock. The Clone Saga, for example. It would be so cool... I could play seven characters. That means seven checks! And I like the idea of having characters in front of Spider-Man who have the same powers as him. ... It would make sense, because cloning is more or less coming true. It would make sense to talk about that. Like a villain who would say, 'This kid has super powers, I want twenty like him who fight for me. I'll take one of his hairs and try to clone him.' And obviously, it would go wrong!
Although The Clone Saga is indeed one of the most well-known Spider-Man storylines, it's also one of the more controversial ones. Following up on the early Clone arc from the 1970s, which saw Miles Warren, a.k.a. The Jackal, taking center stage for the first time, the '90s Clone Saga revolved around numerous Peter Parker doppelgängers swinging around, including Ben Reilly, a.k.a. Scarlet Spider, and Kaine, who picked up the same Scarlet mantle years later. The storyline drew criticism for being too long and convoluted, as well as for having Ben replace Peter as the main Spider-Man. Nevertheless, clones have remained a recurring element in the Spider-Man mythos, including most recently with The Clone Conspiracy.
On the one hand, looking to a storyline that's earned such mixed reception as material for a movie is tricky, but on the other hand, having Spider-Man deal with clones in the MCU at least gives audiences something different and unique. The Jackal is one of those Spider-Man villains who has never been used before, and it would be easy to set him up as the mad scientist who wants to make copies of the young hero to manipulate for his own sinister plans. Judging by his comments to Premiere, Tom Holland is clearly enthusiastic about adapting the Clone Saga for the MCU, so maybe Kevin Feige and the other Marvel bigwigs will take that into account in the weeks after Spider-Man: Homecoming's release as planning for the next sequel begins.
It will be a while until we officially learn what's in store for Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, but in the meantime, the first movie will swing into theaters on July 7.
