In one of the strangest recent announcements to come out of the MCU, Alfred Molina has been recast in the role of Doctor Octopus in the upcoming untitled Spiderman 3.
Molina played the character last in the 2004 sequel to Sam Raimi’s first Spiderman film, widely regarded as one of the greatest superhero films ever made!
The news is coming on the heels of the announcement that Jamie Fox will be reprising his role of Electro from The Amazing Spiderman 2. Subsequent rumors have suggested that Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane) and Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy) may be returning as well!
The rampant rumors and news would seemingly confirm the rumor that the third Tom Holland Spiderman film will involved a Spiderverse style storyline that brings back characters from the previous two renditions of the character. Since it appears that Doctor Strange will be having an appearance in the film as well, multiverse shenanigans doesn’t seem to be off the conceptual table.
As we blogged back in October, previous rumors that Toby McGuire and Andrew Garfield might be returning to the role of Spiderman were unlikely. A representative for Sony publicly denied the rumors despite the widespread speculation.
“Those rumors are not confirmed.”
While such denials are always suspect given the clandestine nature of Hollywood film production, it’s likely that no official deal was down on paper as of last month and Sony didn’t want to jump the gun.
Given that the upcoming sequel is due to be released in December of 2021, it is likely that Disney and Sony will need to get their film into production quickly to make it’s release date. We may yet hear more about Marvel’s plans as deals solidify in the near future!
Cultural Revue 