Now that Spider-Man is officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to his epic debut in Captain America: Civil War, everyone is more eager than ever for next year's
Spider-Man: Homecoming, which will be the character's first solo film as part of the MCU. We know that Tom Holland will be playing Peter Parker, but we don't yet know for sure who Spidey will be squaring off against. Word has it we are very close to finding out for sure. According to a new report, The Vulture will be the bad guy in the new Spider-Man film. Today, it is confirmed that
Michael Keaton will very likely play him.
According to
THR, the Oscar nominated actor is in final negotiations to join the superhero flick and is very close to closing a deal. This is far from the first that we have heard of Keaton flirting with the role in
Spider-Man: Homecoming though. Recently, reports were circulating that Keaton was being pursued by Marvel Studios and Sony to take on the role of
The Vulture, but talks fell through after an offer was made and other actors were being pursued. However, as luck would have it somehow, someway Keaton has come back around and it is looking like he'll be back in a big superhero franchise.
Keaton brought Bruce Wayne to the big screen in Tim Burton's 1989 landmark superhero movie Batman. Keaton's career has enjoyed a massive resurgence as of late, ever since the actor decided to poke a bit of fun at himself, and at superhero movies in general, in the Oscar winning Birdman, for which he was nominated for best actor, ultimately losing out to Eddie Redmayne for his work in The Theory of Everything. The actor continued his hot streak last year, starring in Spotlight, which took home Best Picture at the 2016 Academy Awards.
The Vulture is one of Spider-Man's most
classic villains and has been rumored to be making his way to the big screen for quite some time. Long before Sony decided to reboot the character of Spider-Man with the Andrew Garfield fronted
The Amazing Spider-Man, Sam Raimi had plans to make a fourth Spider-Man film, after the disappointment that was Spider-Man 3, and The Vulture was rumored to be the villain for that film and was to be played by John Malkovich. That would never come to pass, but now the MCU is in a position to bring Adrian Toomes to the big screen for the first time.
Civil War has already crossed
$1 billion worldwide and the film still has a long way to go before it wraps up its theatrical run, so the world will be very familiar with the new Spider-Man by the time
Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters on July 7, 2017. The standalone reboot is being helmed by newcomer Jon Watts, who also directed Kevin Bacon's Cop Car last year.
