With no less than three live-action Spider-Men we’ve seen on the big screen and even more than that when factoring in the animated versions, there’s definitely no shortage ofSpider-Manmovies we’ve seen released over the past two decades. Perhaps the big question is, which ones are the best of them all? Marvel fans will have their own opinions, and the way everyone orders their rankings will differ from person to person. As one particular filmmaker with plenty of his own superhero movie experience, James Gunn also has his own ideas and has even listed his top three.
The opinion was posted in response to aSpider-Manmovie ranking list on Twitter. We are obviously not countingSpider-Man: No Way Homeat this time, as the movie hasn’t been released (and presumably not yet seen by Gunn), so perhaps that top three might change come December. As it stands now, however,James Gunnsays the very best Spidey movie is the animated hitSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, followed by Tobey Maguire’sSpider-Man 2in second place and Tom Holland’sSpider-Man: Homecomingin the number three spot.
All three are very popular movies with Marvel fans, so this top three ranking seems solid enough.Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Versebroke boundaries when it was released in theaters in 2018, drawing immense praise from critics and strong box office results. It later won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, making it the first non-Disney/Pixar movie to get an Oscar for Best Animated Feature sinceRango. Its storyline about multiple Spider-Men teaming up also seems to have influenced the creative direction ofSpider-Man: No Way Home.
The trio of Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman co-directedSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Rothman also penned the screenplay with Phil Lord. It puts the Miles Morales incarnation of Spidey front and center, voiced by Shameik Moore, as he opens up the multiverse and meets several other versions of Spider-Man. A sequel is in the works for an October 2022 release with planned spinoffs also in development.
Gunn’s second pick,Spider-Man 2, is the second movie to featureTobey Maguire as Peter Parkerwith Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock serving as the main villain. This must also mean that Gunn is quite intrigued bySpider-Man: No Way Home, which includes Doc Ock in a rather substantial role, judging from the trailers. There is even speculation that he’ll somehow be working with Spider-Man, this after figuring out that the young man he is talking to is not the same Peter Parker he knows from his home universe. The sequel was universally praised by fans and was a tremendous hit at the box office, making the sting ofSpider-Man 3’s failures hurt all the more.
Finally,Spider-Man: Homecomingis another great movie that serves as the first solo outing for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. Holland will be capping off his own trilogy withNo Way Homefollowing the previous release ofFar From Home, and it’s hard to say what happens next with the web-slinger from here. For his part, Holland has suggestedincorporating the live-action Miles Morales, a character made more famous byInto the Spider-Verse, into the MCU.
Spider-Man: No Way Homewill be released in theaters on Jul 01, 2025.
