Spider-Man 4, 5 & 6 Already Have A Huge Peter Parker Problem

Despite the excitement that met the announcement of a new Spider-Man trilogy following No Way Home, there's already a pretty glaring problem for Tom Holland's Peter Parker. Thanks to the explosive, shocking Spider-Man: Far From Home ending, Parker's identity was revealed to the world by JK Simmons' returning J Jonah Jameson thanks to Mysterio's deception, which is clearly going to turn Spider-Man's world upside down. But of more concern to old school Spider-Man fans may be Far From Home's change to The Daily Bugle and the now impossible path to Peter Parker's usual post-education future.

In the comics, of course - and indeed both in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and the Andrew Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man movies, Peter Parker worked for - or at least with - the Daily Bugle selling photos of Spider-Man. That has been as big a part of Spider-Man's recognizable backstory as Bruce Wayne being a billionaire, Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet, or Professor X running a school for mutants. To change it would be a fundamental change to Peter's very being.

Unfortunately for anyone looking for the chance to see Tom Holland's Peter Parker and J Jonah Jameson working together, Far From Home's after credits scene makes that largely impossible. The Bugle has been reinvented for the post-truth world as a sort of right wing sock puppet site, modelled, clearly, on the likes of InfoWars and operating as a platform for Jameson's firebrand presenter to be the MCU's answer to Alex Jones. That already causes issues for anyone who wants a repeat of the same perverse likeability factor that JK Simmons brought to the role in Raimi's movies, but it also makes it supremely unlikely Peter Parker would work for them, surely?

The trajectory of Spider-Man's story in No Way Home does suggest that Doctor Strange's spell will be successful, albeit with several very dangerous side effects, but even then, Peter Parker actively working with someone like Jameson in this universe doesn't really fit. He may need the money he'd get for selling pictures of Spider-Man, but would he get into bed with the devil to do so? Perhaps the MCU's real Mephisto is Jameson's fake news spouting mouthpiece for whatever nefarious villain is potentially funding The New Bugle. It's not entirely implausible that Peter would do so, but working for a newspaper that trashed Spider-Man and working for what appears to be a nefarious, ruinous new media company are not the same in terms of morality.

The set up from Far From Home's ending was great, and having JK Simmons back as J Jonah Jameson is a true delight - as much as the very strongly hinted return of Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin in Hawkeye, in fact - but it comes at a cost. Jameson can hardly become an anti-hero unless it's revealed that he's been tricked into working for the Bugle, and Peter Parker simply cannot work for his most recognizable employer in the MCU. What else is there in this new MCU world for Peter to do? Could he actually follow in the footsteps of Tony Stark and use his brilliant intellect as a replacement Science Bro? Would a full-time position on the Avengers somehow be viable even without Iron Man's billions? These are questions that need to be answered to furnish the future of Tom Holland's Spider-Man in the MCU when the new trilogy comes around.

With Tom Holland returning for a new Spider-Man trilogy, here are some of the villains that could be in Spider-Man 4, 5, and 6. Marvel Studios and Sony agreed to an unprecedented deal in 2015 to share Spider-Man on the big screen so the web-slinger could be rebooted as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Holland's Peter Parker made five movie appearances in four years as a result, and Spider-Man: No Way Home caps off his first trilogy. While it appeared this could be the final MCU Spider-Man movie, plans are in motion for another trilogy starring Holland.

Most details about Spider-Man 4, 5, and 6 are not yet known, but the possibility of another trilogy of movies means Holland's Spider-Man will encounter multiple villains. At the start of Marvel Studios and Sony's collaboration, it was decided that the Spider-Man solo films would feature villains who weren't used in either Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man trilogy or Andrew Garfield's two The Amazing Spider-Man films. This led Vulture to becoming the lead villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Mysterio wreaking havoc in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Other villains like Prowler, Shocker, and Tinkerer were also featured in supporting roles. Spider-Man: No Way Home took the mantra of using new villains and went in the completely other direction. The power of the multiverse enabled the studios to bring back many previous Spider-Man movie actors/villains, including Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus, Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, and Jamie Foxx's Electro.