Spider-Man 3 Possible Release Date Window and Plot Details for the Inevitable Marvel Game
What’s swinging our way next?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 landed on PlayStation 5 at the end of October to fantastic reviews. While there’s plenty in the game to keep players occupied for weeks to come, there’s also the question of what comes next. This being a massive game based on a popular Marvel property, there’s no doubt that we’ll see Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 at some point. It’s just a matter of when and what to expect.
Keep in mind that Insomniac Games hasn’t said anything about Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 yet, but this is what we might expect based on what we know about the rest of the series.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 Release Window
Take your time with Spider-Man 2. We won’t see a sequel for a while.
While nothing is official yet, we can look at the release dates of previous Spider-Man games for a hint at how long we’ll wait for the next one. The original Spider-Man launched in September 2018, followed by Spider-Man: Miles Morales in November 2020, then Spider-Man 2 in October 2023. That’s a two-year gap between Spider-Man and its smaller sequel, followed by a three-year gap for the latest game.
We don’t know yet if Insomniac Games will release another Miles Morales-sized installment before the next numbered game in the series, which would shake things up quite a bit. But assuming that Spider-Man 3 is the next entry, we shouldn’t expect to see it until Fall 2026 at the earliest, and it’s likely to be later than that. By that point, we could also see Spider-Man 3 launch on Sony’s next console.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 Story Details
Miles and Peter both have loose threads to possibly pull in Spider-Man 3.
The best places to look for what could come in Spider-Man 3 are the words of Insomniac Games developers and the events of Spider-Man 2.
Speaking to the Friends Per Second podcast, creative director Bryan Intihar compared the Spider-Man PlayStation series to the MCU , “If Spider-Man and Miles were our Iron Man, and Spider-Man 2 was like [Captain America 3], where logically do we go from there?”
The implication seems to be that the inevitable Spider-Man 3 will build on the stories of the first few games in the series, particularly by assembling a larger cast of characters, like in Avengers: Endgame.
Aside from this vague statement, we also have clues in Spider-Man 2. That game’s story, especially its ending, gives some clear signals for what threats Peter and Miles will face against in the next installment.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Throughout the side quests of Spider-Man 2, the game hints toward at least two major villains. In one questline, Peter works with Wraith — a vigilante who’s actually a returning ally from the first game — to track down a villain who goes by the Flame. It’s later revealed that the Flame is actually Cletus Kasady, better known as Carnage in Spider-Man comics.
Villains from Peter Parker’s past are likely to come back to haunt him in Spider-Man 3.
Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka the Chameleon, also makes an appearance. As the brother of Kraven the Hunter, it’s heavily implied that he’ll return in a future game to fight Spider-Man.
A much larger sign of things to come appears at the very end of Spider-Man 2. The game ends with Venom defeated, but taking out the Symbiote leaves its former host, Harry Osborne, in a coma. In a cutscene, Norman Osborne visits his son in the hospital, then makes a call instructing someone to “get the G-Serum ready.” It’s almost guaranteed at this point that Osborne will finally appear as the Green Goblin.
In a post-credits scene, Osborne also pays a visit to Doctor Octopus in prison, where he grills him about the identity of Spider-Man. It’s not clear exactly what will come of it, but it’s likely that Doc Ock — and potentially some version of the Sinister Six he originally tried to gather — will return in Spider-Man 3.
We haven’t seen the last of Harry and Norman Osborne.
The ending of Spider-Man 2 also points to a shakeup in the superhero roster next time around. Peter Parker announces his retirement, which is almost certain not to last. But if Spider-Man 3 wants to end with Parker passing the torch, there’s a clear path for that.
The final post-credits scene shows Miles meeting his mom’s new boyfriend and his daughter, who’s introduced as Cindy Moon. As introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man comics, Cindy Moon is the secret identity of Silk, a new hero with spider-based powers of her own.
Putting it all together, it seems likely that Spider-Man 3 will focus at least in part on the two existing versions of Spider-Man teaming up to fight the Green Goblin and a host of other villains, with Silk possibly stepping up to fill the gap when Parker eventually retires. Of course, any of these plotlines could also be explored in DLC, which should give us a much clearer picture of what’s to come.
