The announcement of the return of Spiderman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe evoked excitement among the fans of the superhero who have been looking forward to another installment on his story. With much of the fanfare regarding the news of his return out of the way, Spiderman's fans and followers are now busy speculating on the age and identity of the superhero in the upcoming flick. In an interview with Collider, Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, teased fans on what to expect for this project.
Feige revealed that the latest version of Spiderman will be featured in his teens. "In terms of the age of an actor we'll eventually to cast, I don't know," he admitted. "In terms of the age of what we believe Peter Parker is, I'd say 15-16 is right," he shared.
The executive elucidated that the decision to place Spiderman in the high school setting was rooted from their desire to explore "so many things from the comics that haven't been done yet" in all five versions of the hero's story. Apart from the other characters and villains who have not been introduced to the public, Feige believes that the young Peter Parker's personality will be a fertile ground for new angles to feature in the upcoming film.
"The most obvious [among Parker's traits] being the 'young, doesn't quite fit in' kid before his powers, and then the fella that puts on a mask and swings around and fights bad guys and doesn't shut up, which is something we want to play with and we're excited about," he said. Feige, in another interview with Crave Online, described the high school version of Peter Parker as someone "is very, very funny and very, very witty when he's in that costume, swinging around." The Marvel executive also stated that these traits of Spiderman, which usually surfaces while fighting the bad guys, may be attributed to his "nervous energy."
One of the most widely discussed aspect is whether the upcoming film will once again tackle the superhero's origin. Feige, who is also recognized as the creative force behind the franchise's return to the Marvel world, explained that this will not be the case for this project. "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," he disclosed.
Feige went on to assert that this project will not delve into the past of Spiderman in terms of how, when, and what caused him to obtain his abilities. However, the Marvel head is quick to clarify that such aspect will not be completely ignored in the film. "But, with great power comes great responsibility," Feige continued. "It is inherent to who his character is. But we want to reveal it in different ways and spend much more time focusing on this young high school kid in the MCU dealing with his powers," he added.
Some of the "things" Feige believes they could still explore include the superhero's "interactions with other heroes in the universe, because that was not possible, and also exploring more the notion, as the comics did for many, many years, as Ultimate Spider-Man did for ten years, [of] a much younger version of Spider-Man than we've seen in the movies. [The previous films] get him in and out of high school really fast."
