Copyright /FILM
At long last, traction has finally been made on "The Batman: Part II" becoming a reality. The Matt Reeves-directed superhero movie was a welcoming blend of noir, action thriller, and horror movie, with a stellar performance from Robert Pattinson as the haunted Caped Crusader. While that first film was co-written with Peter Craig, "The Batman: Part II" will instead see Reeves partner up on screenplay duties with Mattson Tomlin. The "Terminator Zero" creator certainly appears to be a real fan of comics across Marvel and DC, with a particular interest in "Spider-Man." When Tomlin was asked by a fan on social media on how he would like to adapt the beloved webhead for the screen, he responded with a concept pitch that would continue Sam Raimi's film trilogy (via Entertainment Weekly): "Honestly right now my main interest in this respect would be to write a 'Spider-Man 4' where Tobey's Spider-Man is juggling being a superhero and a father. Spider-Man as a father is where I gravitate towards given the last 8 films." The ending of "Spider-Man 3" sees Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) embracing amid the unpredictable future that lies ahead for them. When we meet up with Tobey's Spidey in "No Way Home," he talks about how they had some relationship complications in the 19-year interim, yet found a way to make it work. Outside of the films, however, lies a great example in the beloved "Ultimate Spider-Man" comics that sees Peter deal with his dueling responsibilities as an adult. Written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Marco Checchetto, "Ultimate Spider-Man" is a unique spin on the character's origin story. On Earth-6160, Peter is already in his 30s, married to MJ and with two children (Richard and May). He learns through a mysterious package from Tony Stark that he was meant to be bitten by the radioactive spider long ago, and Tony is now giving him the chance to embrace who he was meant to be. It's not an entirely out of left field creative decision considering we've seen plenty of adult Spider people. In fact, Hickman has talked about how his interpretation of Spider-Man was inspired by Jake Johnson's Peter B. Parker from "Into the Spider-Verse" (via IGN). When we reunite with Peter B. in "Across the Spider-Verse," he's not only reconciled with MJ, but had a daughter named Mayday. We'll likely get to see how this plays out in the upcoming "Beyond the Spider-Verse," which goes to show how much this concept can work within the parameters of Maguire's Spider-Man. Even the folks over at DC managed to make a very successful television series for The CW ("Superman and Lois") that followed one of their flagship heroes trying to raise a family. If there's any "in" for a potential "Spider-Man 4" legacy sequel, it's this. "There won't be anything to say about that for a long time (if ever!) because it involves a lot of people and politics and things going right that have nothing to do with me, but I haven't gotten a 'no' yet," says Tomlin (via Entertainment Weekly). Having three different "Spider-Man" movie franchises at the same time runs the risk of over-saturation, but it's not a bad approach.
