Arguably the best on-screen Spider-Man villain ever is making his return and the implications are huge. After weeks of rumours, the Hollywood Reporter now says Alfred Molina is indeed returning as Doctor Octopus for Sony and Marvel’s untitled third Spider-Man film, directed by Jon Watts.
What’s so huge about this is Molina’s version of the character is from a universe where Tobey Maguire is Peter Parker, while another actor reportedly in the film, Jamie Foxx, is from a universe where Andrew Garfield is Peter Parker. Reminder: neither of them are the star of this movie.
Tom Holland, of course, is our current Spider-Man and this latest (untitled) film is a sequel to Homecoming and Far From Home set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Throw Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange into the mix and it certainly seems like this Spider-sequel has some very strong Into the Spider-Verse vibes.
Gizmodo reached out to Sony which had no comment.
Stepping back a second, Molina played Doc Ock in 2004’s Spider-Man 2. In it, he was a mentor and role model to Peter Parker (Maguire) who then went mad with power thanks to his new technology. Spider-Man ends up having to kill him at the end of the movie to save the city so, yeah, this is very interesting.
Is Holland’s Peter Parker merely going to look back in at these other Spider-showdowns? Will they play a larger role in the plot? We have no idea. What we do know is that production is currently underway on the film and, at the moment, the untitled sequel is set for release December 17, 2021.