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Is Spider-Man: Homecoming a reboot?

By Sarabeth Pollock

Official still for Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer 3; image courtesy of IGN.
Official still for Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer 3; image courtesy of IGN. /
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In an age where movies are recycled over and over again, is Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming the latest in the franchise reboot craze?

Is Spider-Man: Homecoming a reboot? The easy answer is yes. Kind of. Mostly.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is a reboot in the sense that it takes us back through the early history of Peter Parker and his quest to become the superhero we all know and love, but the third time’s the charm as Marvel steps in and brings in some powerful allies in ways that previous iterations haven’t seen before.

Here’s a quick history of everyone’s favorite web-slinger: 15 years ago, Tobey Maguire was your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in 2002’s lauded Spider-Man. After three films, Maguire bowed out, and in 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man relaunched the Spidey franchise with James Garfield in the titular role. Now we have Tom Holland in the iconic red and blue suit in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming.

All three franchises, which span six movies including Homecoming, began with Peter Parker’s rise to power. They saw young Peter Parker in high school figuring out how to balance life as a teenager with the life of being a superhero with superpowers. However, Spider-Man: Homecoming introduces Peter Parker after he fought with Tony Stark in the clash between Iron Man and Captain America in Captain America: Civil War. Now Parker has a mentor in Tony Stark, and as a mentor Stark is trying to help the youngster develop his powers so that he might someday become an Avenger.

The addition of the Avengers changes the trajectory of this current Spider-Man reboot. With Marvel back in control of the intellectual property, Spidey can be tied into other areas of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.

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These minor tweaks make this reboot very different from the previous two, and Spider-Man’s cinematic future will no doubt be very different this time around.

Spider-Man: Homecoming opens on July 7, 2017.