2016 is going to give us some superhero combinations on the big screen that fans have been anticipating for a very long time. On the DC side, Warner Bros. will finally give us Batman vs. Superman in, well, Batman v Superman, and on the Marvel side, a brand new Spider-Man will be introduced (in cameo capacity) alongside a slew of Marvel characters in Captain America: Civil War, which also pits our favorite Marvel heroes against each other.

The latter is a curious case, because while the prospect of Spider-Man being rebooted again isn’t wholly exciting, the fact that Marvel Studios is involved with the character for the first time—and the fact that he’ll be a fully fledged member of the MCU—is a big deal. Marvel and Sony Pictures are working quickly to get the film ready for release in Summer 2017, and they’ve now got their star (Tom Holland), director (Jon Watts), and screenwriters (John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein).

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Image via Marvel Comics

Daley and Goldstein are currently doing the press rounds for their directorial debut, Vacation, and they recently appeared on Grantland’s terrific The Andy Greenwald Podcast where they spoke quite extensively about their plans for Spidey. Most importantly, Goldstein confirmed once and for all that the new Spider-Man will not be an origin story:


“I think that everybody feels like you know he got bit by a spider and you know Uncle Ben died, and we probably don’t need to revisit that.”

As for their particular take on the superhero, Daley stressed that telling a Spider-Man story with a strong emphasis on his high school life gives them an opportunity to do something different:

“We have a meeting set up at the end of the week just to go over the logistics and to look at his suit, which will be fun. But we’re so pumped about it and Marvel seems to be doing everything right; we’re both such huge fans of the stuff they’re putting out. I think it’ll be a fun departure from the Peter Parker you’ve seen, where now he is truly a kid and I think the stakes are increased in that his struggle through high school is very real and isn’t just a sort of side note; it matters now.”

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Image via Magnolia Pictures

At 18 years old, Holland is also the youngest actor to portray Spider-Man on the big screen, and Goldstein explained that his youth and awkwardness are key to the character of Peter Parker:

“We want to explore the fact that just because you get superpowers doesn’t make you into a really sophisticated, successful adult. He’s still a kid and he’s clumsy and he’s a geek and he’s a bit of an outcast, and in many ways the superpowers amplify that and exacerbate his trying to fit in.”

Continuing Goldstein’s thought, Daley added that the arrival of superpowers further complicates an already complex life for Peter Parker:


“He has one more secret that he has to sort of keep from the world, one more burden that he’s dealing with above all the other crap that he’s dealing with at school. So it’s gonna be fun, and we can relate to that Peter Parker character—we’re geeky guys that weren’t popular in school ourselves.”

The two stressed that it’s still early days so it’s possible their take could evolve and shift over the next year before production begins, but it certainly sounds like they’re enthused to write a Spider-Man movie unlike any we’ve seen before, and that’s a very good start.

The untitled Spider-Man reboot is set for release on July 28, 2017. Watch the Andy Greenwald Podcast below. Spider-Man talk begins around the 19:40 mark.

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Image via Marvel