One of the results of Marvel and Sony partnering together on Spider-Man is that the Wall-Crawler’s film series will be rebooted…again. With the Amazing Spider-Man series tossed aside, the MCU Spider-Man reportedly will debut in Captain America: Civil War before headlining his own movie in 2017. This will be the third live-action incarnation of the character on the big screen, which means that Marvel and Sony have their work cut out for giving fans and general moviegoers something new. That’s why they’re looking to Batman Begins for inspiration on Peter Parker’s future.
In an interview with IGN, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige compared what the new Spider-Man film series has to accomplish to what Batman Begins did for DC’s Dark Knight back in 2005. According to Feige:
There were four Batman movies over however many years, and then Batman Begins was able to do something unique, tap into a side that hadn't been seen before in the movies. It is a similar thing. Of course, the tone is completely different than Batman Begins.
Batman Begins is often looked at as the standard on how to do a franchise reboot. After the failure of Batman and Robin in 1997, eight years later Batman Begins moved away from the camp, color and humor to lead the Caped Crusader down a grittier and more grounded path, and the end result was enormously successful. As Feige notes, that doesn’t mean that every reboot has to be as dark as Batman Begins. It just needs to establish a tone vastly different from what previous films have done while also staying true to the spirit of the source material.
Although the Amazing Spider-Man series did have several differences from the Sam Raimi series, like Peter’s web-shooters and the mystery surrounding his parents, some might say that it also had too many similarities to the Spider-Man films of the previous decade. Whatever your opinion on that may be, Marvel's now shooting to give us a Spidey who is unique, but also still feels familiar.
Feige also mentioned that one thing we still haven’t seen with Spider-Man on the big screen is the hero whose "non-stop wit" is just as useful against criminals as his powers are. Admittedly, we did see more of Spider-Man’s trademark snark when Andrew Garfield was wearing the mask, but it sounds like Feige wants to put more emphasis on humor for the next iteration of the character. So expect him to be busting out more one-liners and insults against the criminals he’s beating up when we see him next time in the theater.
