Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) may not be appearing in his own sequel just yet, with Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness pushed back to 2022, but he will be joining everyone’s favourite web-slinger in Spider-Man 3 – ‘home’ related subtitle currently unannounced.
Long rumoured to involve the return of previous Spider-Men (Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire), Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange is likely to take over a mentorship role in the Spider-Man franchise from Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark, helping Holland’s Peter Parker cope with the clash of Marvel’s multiple universes.
Cumberbatch joins returning Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) cast members Zendaya (Euphoria), Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler), Jacob Batalon (Spider-Man: Far From Home) and Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel).
Also joining the movie is Jamie Foxx, reprising his role from 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as comic-book nemesis Electro. It is currently unknown if this will be the exact same character from the 2014 Andrew Garfield movie, which is completely separate from the current Marvel Studios canon. This is the greatest hint towards Marvel Studios bringing together all their previous ‘universes’ under one single MCU ‘multiverse’ since J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
We can assume that the multiverse will be of great focus when Marvel moves into its next phase of movies, whenever COVID-19 allows the franchise to progress. Scarlett Johansson’s solo outing as Black Widow has been pushed back several times and is now set to release in May 2021. It has opened up the discussion concerning whether or not releasing the movie on Disney’s streaming service Disney+ is a possibility, something that Marvel President Kevin Feige seems very reluctant to do.
Jon Watts will be returning to direct Spider-Man 3, currently setting up production in New York City and set to release in Winter 2021.
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