(Updated)
Over the past few months, there has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding the return of Spider-Man to movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (for those confused, different companies own the movie rights to several Marvel properties, more on that later). With the upcoming movie, Captain America: Civil War, many were wondering how the story would be told without Spider-Man taking part. Comic aficionados remember that Peter Parker played an integral role, having first sided with Iron Man, and those favoring registration for those with super power, then later changing sides when he realized Captain America and those opposed to registration had pretty good reasons to stand against the program (I won’t go into much detail, because word is the plot in the upcoming movie will diverge significantly from the story in the comics). With Sony owning the rights to Spider-Man, there was no way Marvel could use him in their movie. Fortunately, a deal was struck which benefits both Marvel (allowing them to use Spidey in their movies without having to buy back the rights) and Sony (because they had been doing pretty terribly with making good movies featuring the web-slinger).
As soon as the deal was announced, however, the buzz turned from how they’d do Civil War without Spider-Man to who would play him, which incarnation of Spidey it would be (many have donned the mask, and some were hoping it would be Miles Morales, while others were hoping for the original, Peter Parker), and if we’d have to see another origin story. Well, some of those questions have now been answered by Kevin Feige, one of the key players who secured the return of Spidey to the MCU, and the man who will (alongside Amy Pascal) produce the next full Spider-Man movie.
In an interview with Collider, Feige confirmed that it would be Peter Parker who would be the web-slinger for the foreseeable future, but that (at least initially), he would be a young Peter Parker “In terms of the age of what we believe Peter Parker is, I’d say 15-16 is right.” Notice he did leave some wiggle room there, but continued “We want to play with Spider-Man in the high school years because, frankly, there’ve been five Spider-Man films, and there are so many things from the comics that haven’t been done yet,” continuing to imply that they want to show a more young and vulnerable side to the young Peter who just doesn’t fit in well as an adolescent.
While many people are upset that Miles Morales wasn’t featured (the possibility of this is always open in the future), more are worried that there will be yet another reboot of the series which has already seen two origin stories in recent history. Given that his first appearance is supposed to be in Civil War, however, there isn’t likely to be time for this. Only time will tell how this will play out, however, especially with a full-fledged Spider-Man entry coming on the horizon.
Update (23:16): Feige, in a one-on-one interview with CraveOnline clarified “It will not be an origin story.” Further, he noted “In Spider-Man’s very specific case, where there have been two retellings of that origin in the last, whatever it’s been – [thirteen] years – for us we are going to take it for granted that people know that, and the specifics”
