Age of The Nerd
The idea of yet another Spider-Man Reboot has been something that has left a bad taste in the mouth of many people since the new deal between Marvel & Sony
to share the character simultaneously blew many fans minds. With the announcement of Jon Watts and Tom Holland as director and star, people have been pondering what the future of spider-man holds in store. It’s definitely a good sign that Marvel will get their hands on the newest incarnation of the superhero before Sony does this time around with Captain America: Civil War, but people weren’t quite sure what to expect with the web slinger’s next standalone film. One thing is for sure: people-including myself-are sick of continuous retellings of the same origin story.
Now that Vacation writers/directors John Frances Daily & Jonathan Goldstein have begun formulating story ideas about the Spider-Man reboot they will be writing, they have spoken out on The Andy Greenwald Podcast about the direction the franchise will take. Goldstein said this about the origin of the character:
“I think that everybody feels like you know he got bit by a spider and you know Uncle Ben died, and we probably don’t need to revisit that.”
Good news, right? Well, Goldstein elaborated further on the status of development and direction that the new Spider-Man reboot is going to take:
“We have a meeting set up at the end of the week just to go over the logistics and to look at his suit, which will be fun. But we’re so pumped about it and Marvel seems to be doing everything right; we’re both such huge fans of the stuff they’re putting out. I think it’ll be a fun departure from the Peter Parker you’ve seen, where now he is truly a kid and I think the stakes are increased in that his struggle through high school is very real and isn’t just a sort of side note; it matters now.”
When speaking about the casting of Holland, who is the youngest actor to play the character at the age of 18, Goldstein elaborated that having a young actor play the character is central to their approach:
“We want to explore the fact that just because you get superpowers doesn’t make you into a really sophisticated, successful adult. He’s still a kid and he’s clumsy and he’s a geek and he’s a bit of an outcast, and in many ways the superpowers amplify that and exacerbate his trying to fit in.”
Daily then elaborated on this thought by saying:
“He has one more secret that he has to sort of keep from the world, one more burden that he’s dealing with above all the other crap that he’s dealing with at school. So it’s gonna be fun, and we can relate to that Peter Parker character—we’re geeky guys that weren’t popular in school ourselves.”
I like the idea of having fresh approach to the material, and it’s also smart for the studio to hire writers with a comedic background, but therein lies the problem. Much like the hiring of Shane Black for Iron Man 3, I just don’t hope that the tone of the film doesn’t become overshadowed by more comedic elements of the character.
What are YOUR thoughts on the direction of the Spider-Man Reboot? Sound off in the comments!
The Spider-Man Reboot comes out July 28, 2017.
You can watch the full podcast below, and you can hear Joel and I talk about the cinematic future of the Spider-Man HERE and HERE.
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