Spider-Man: Brand New Day (BND) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton hit gold with the humongous reception of the fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man film. Bringing his unique vision to the character, Spider-Man: Brand New Day recently surpassed Avatar: The Way of Water to become the third-highest-grossing movie of all time.
With Disney's Marvel Studios and Sony's collaborations for this film continuing, recent headlines also reported that Destin Daniel Cretton was indeed returning to direct the next film of this franchise. Destin's approach to Spider-Man brought a fresh breath of air to both the treatment of the characters and a story that witnessed Tom's Peter Parker aka Spider-Man shedding his skin from the 'Home' trilology and embracing life as a college-going student. However, the film also connected with fans and audiences all the more largely due to how well certain comic-book plotlines were incorporated within sections of the film, including iconic foes, heartfelt and meaningful integration of supporting characters like Hulk, The Punisher and even the famed mutant Jean Grey.
As the filmmaker returns to direct the film's follow-up in the fifth Spider-Man film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, albeit years from now, viewers and fans are already excited about which storyline from the comics could work best balancing both fan service and a meaningful direction to Peter's overall journey as the web-slinger. Here are 3 storylines that, if integrated well, we believe that they may work well for the next film.
In one of the most sought-after storylines for Tom Holland's Spider-Man by fans, Destin's tone witnessed in Brand New Day, can evolve beautifully into the saga that incorporates the alien symbiote (finally paying off the post-credit scene from Spider-Man: No Way Home) that latches onto Peter, bringing out a darker, more aggressive version of himself. With BND establishing a comic-accurate Peter who is rather emotinally distant from his friends alongside have a rather isolated life, this my be a perfect oppurtunity for Destin to integrate the black-suit arc, especially with Avengers: Secret Wars around the corner (Secret Wars because Peter gets his iconic black suit with the Spider-Emblem in the Secret Wars comic-book run).
While BND hinted largely towards how Spider-Man became a hero for the neighbourhood taking down a lot of New-York-based villains like Tombstone, Mac Gargan/Scorpion, The Hand and others, the fifth film has every chance to build further on that story and bring in characters like Daredevil and Kingpin/Wilson Fisk, highlighting how the power vacuum in the city's political power and the underground crime syndicate has survived the game-changing events of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 and its upcoming follow-up season.
Hobgoblin, the iconic Spider-Man villain, has every chance to make a debut in the next film. With BND interestingly choosing to end its story by restablishing the forgotten bond that Ned begins to remember he has with Peter, the fifth film in this saga can introduce the iconic villain via his rendition of Roderick Kingsley. While Roderick remains the primary villain, the next Spider-Man film could give the foreshadowing of Ned's magical abilities (as shown in Spider-Man: No Way Home), his memory gaps incurred from Dr Strange's spell and his comic book stint as Hob Goblin due to weightage. The film could show Roderick brainwashing and influencing Ned to become stand in as the villain.