All of the Spider-Man film series have begun with Peter Parker in high school, but the MCU will be placing more emphasis on Peter Parker's life as a student. With Spider-Man: Homecoming taking place during his sophomore year, the plan is for 2019's Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 to take place his junior year and a potential third movie in his senior year, similar to the Harry Potter model. Holland, though, is looking beyond Peter's high school years and hoping that he'll be able to play the character for at least two more decades. Holland said:
Peter Parker is a character we see [in the comic books] as a 15-year-old boy and then as a 35-year-old man. So I have an idea of what I'd like to do, and I've pitched it and it's already been taken into the boardroom. It would be really cool if it pans out, because it means I would be Spider-Man for a very long time.
Tom Holland laid out his plan to Empire about how he wants audiences to see his version of Spider-Man progress from being a high schooler to an experienced adult, which would guarantee that the actor would remain Peter Parker for many years. While the passage of time in the Marvel Comics universe is unusual and definitely operates as a "floating timeline," Spider-Man has clearly aged more than a decade since he was bitten by that radioactive spider, and since that time has gone to college, married (which was later undone), led his own company and more. If Holland's pitch sold the right people, we could watch the MCU Peter's life unfold the same way.
This is an ambitious goal, but it's hard to imagine it being practical. After all, will the MCU still be around in 20 years? The franchise is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year, and post-Phase Three plans are already in the works, but can anyone say with absolute certainly that we'll see any of the superheroes in this continuity still being active? Tom Holland is only a couple years older than his character, so at least we know he could keep playing Spider-Man convincingly well into his 30s, but again, it's way too early to start plotting something like that out.
Taking place a few months after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming will follow Peter Parker as he tries to balance his normal life as a high schooler with his crimefighting activities, namely battling The Vulture, The Shocker and The Tinkerer. As if all that wasn't hard enough, Spidey will also have to prove that he has what it takes to be a superhero after his mentor, Tony Stark, takes away his special suit following a criminal encounter gone wrong.
Spider-Man: Homecoming crawls into theaters on July 7.
