Sony Considering Spider-Man Reboot Focusing On Adult Spider-Man Or Kraven’s Last Hunt

Among the ideas being kicked around for salvaging the floundering Spider-Man franchise is a plan that would see the next set of filmmakers just pick up and continue the story without retelling the origin, carrying the character on into adulthood rather than retreating into high school or college yet again, says The Daily Beast.

When the studio launched their film franchise with director Sam Raimi, Spidey had been out of college and married for quite some time in the comic books and in the newspaper strips. By the time Andrew Garfield put on the mask, though, One More Day had changed the face of the Spider-Man titles and the character found himself seemingly de-aged, with a number of tweaks to his history and backstory that included removing the marriage and resurrecting his dead frenemy Harry Osborne, among other things.

“To argue that there’s plenty of other superhero movies with levity in the marketplace, so why make more Spider-Man movies, would be akin to saying there’s no room for James Bond films because of all the espionage films and franchises that have come out over the years,” former Warner Bros. chief Jeff Robinov said in an e-mail to Sony’s chairman about the franchise’s direction. “There will always be room for this beloved, iconic hero.”

He added, “In the next Spider-Man movies, we can’t go back to his origin story. Think of the 25 films in the James Bond franchise; just because a new creative team comes aboard, and breathes new life into a classic property, doesn’t mean the origin story has to be retold.”

A number of filmmakers were named as potential stewards of the franchise, including Guardians of the Galaxy‘s James Gunn and The Lego Movie‘s Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

They’ve considered the ’80s classic Kraven’s Last Hunt by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck as another potential story to tell. Noting that it was voted the best Spider-Man story of all time by fans, Robinov said that the tale proves that it’s not the powers that make Spider-Man special, but the man underneath the mask.

Next month, Sony is expected to have a “Spider-Man summit” to determine the future of the franchise. Between now and then, it seems inevitable that we’ll see more leaks.