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Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland)
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by: S. Scott Stanikmas – Senior Staff Writer

It’s been a busy few days for Sony’s third attempt at jump-starting the Spider-Man movie franchise. Rumors circulated a few days ago regarding what the title of the film was and that has now been confirmed. But the bigger news is who might be giving the wall-crawler fits AND a certain actor that might be joining the film.

First up is the title. It was rumored that Spider-Man: Homecoming was going to be the title due to a website domain patent on behalf of Sony. But a day or so later Sony decided to go for a few more site names, throwing some confusion into the mix.

However Sony and Marvel made the announcement at CinemaCon this week that the next Spidey flick will indeed be called Spider-Man: Homecoming. They even unveiled the film’s logo:

Now that the title is out of the way, it’s time to bring on the bad guys! BirthMoviesDeath dropped a bomb and said they have it on good authority that one of the next villains to vex the Friendly Neighborhood vigilante will be Adrian Toomes, better known as The Vulture.

In the comics Vulture is an old man who creates a harness that increases his strength and allows him to fly. Back when Sam Raimi was going to do Spider-Man 4 he was planning on bringing in the elderly supervillain and he even had John Malkovich lined up to bring the character to life. Alas that was stopped and the idea went back on the shelf. Marc Webb even thought about using The Vulture in his Sinister Six film or even Amazing Spider-Man 3 but those projects were all eventually abandoned due to poor financial returns.

Now I did say The Vulture would be ONE of the the villains in the film. Right now it’s unclear how many baddies Spider-Man will have to face and where Toomes fits into the grand scheme of things. He could be a henchman of the film’s big bad or he could be the next to last guy our hero has to face in order to get to the Final Boss. Whatever the case, BMD feels that Vulture isn’t the one pulling the strings this time around.   

Now who do you get to play a villain like that? How about a guy who used to fly around like a Bird(man) or a Bat(man)?

That’s right – Variety reports that Michael Keaton is circling the superhero film. However just what role he’s being considered for is unclear at this time. With the Vulture rumors currently gaining steam of course everyone is jumping on the “Keaton as Vulture” bandwagon. I’d like to see the actor take on something more than a throwaway villain though…maybe he’d consider being J. Jonah Jameson? After all he’s shown his chops as a newspaperman recently in Spotlight as well as way back in The Paper (which also starred Marisa Tomei, our new Aunt May).

Wow, this film is heating up and the new Spidey hasn’t even officially debuted yet! Filming will most likely start sometime soon so the film can hit it’s projected theatrical release next summer.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei and Zendaya, is expected to swing into theaters July 7, 2017.