Sony might have already revealed how a future live-action Spider-Man character will meet their end, and the hint came from its own animated Spider-Verse franchise. Spider-Man is having a monster year, with Brand New Day smashing box office records in theaters and Beyond the Spider-Verse now less than a year out. On the surface, Brand New Day and Across the Spider-Verse have almost nothing in common, since one sticks to a small story while the other runs entirely on multiversal chaos. But the two movies might be far more connected than anyone realized, recontextualizing one of Across' biggest reveals.
In theory, it seems that Across the Spider-Verse may have revealed this new Tom Holland Spider-Man character's fate.
The rule at the center of this theory comes from the moment when Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac) lays out the concept of "canon events" for Miles Morales (Shameik Moore).
As he lays it out, these are fixed tragedies that happen to every Spider-Man across the multiverse, and messing with them risks unraveling an entire dimension. In the movie, there were callbacks to past Spider-Man stories, including actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
One of the most consistent canon events is the death of a police captain close to Spider-Man, a rule that hits especially close to home for both Miles and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).
Miles' father, Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), is on the verge of becoming a captain himself, and Gwen's father already holds that title in her universe, which puts both men in the supposed crosshairs of their kids' respective canon events.
For those who have seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this kind of canon event could mean trouble for a newly introduced character to the MCU.
A major part of Peter's arc in Brand New Day is him finally breaking out of his mutation-causing isolation, and one person who helps pull him out is Detective Jean DeWolff (played by The Bear's Liza Colon-Zayas).
It's established early in the film that DeWolff and Spider-Man have been working together, keeping the streets of New York City clean for a while now. But Spider-Man's identity, of course, is a secret, and Peter also doesn't ask her very many off-topic, personal questions. By the end of the film, Peter is getting back to merging his real-life with crime-fighting, and part of that is becoming closer friends with Dewolff.
To be fair, she isn't a captain yet, but that could easily change in a future Spider-Man MCU installment, and if it does, her death would fit perfectly with the same canon event that Miguel explains in Across, just now in Holland's corner of the multiverse.
It is worth noting that there's still a way out. Beyond the Spider-Verse is likely going to address canon events directly, maybe even make a 180-degree turn and retroactively make them not as set in stone as once thought by the Spider Society.
One could also argue that MCU Peter's canon event was the death of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) in No Way Home, with Peter 2 and 3 relating to Holland's Spidey about the losses of their Uncle Bens. In this case, the police captain angle wouldn't hold much weight in the MCU.
One more theory worth mentioning: some fans believe the 2D vision The Spot shows of Miles' father dying isn't actually a look at Miles' future at all. Instead, the working idea is that it's a glimpse of what already happened on Earth-42, the alternate dimension where Miles never became Spider-Man and grew up to be the Prowler after losing his dad.
If that's true, the "prophecy" might not be a warning about what's coming for Miles at all, but a connection to the alternate reality that will be revealed in Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Hasn't Tom Holland's Peter Been Through Enough?
This theory is a great way to connect every Spider-Man across the multiverse, but it hits different when you consider the hell and back Tom Holland's version of the character has already been through.
Andrew's Peter lost Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and that's often seen as the gold standard for Spider-Man tragedy, but Holland's Peter has arguably been through even more.
His homecoming date's dad turned out to be the Vulture (Michael Keaton) and tried to kill him. His mentor, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), died in his arms. Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) tricked him, which could have led to the deaths of thousands. He watched Aunt May die.
He had to make the entire world, including MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), forget he ever existed. Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) then tricked him into thinking MJ remembered him anyway. He even nearly lost himself forever to his own arachnid DNA, a byproduct of his utter loneliness.
Adding DeWolff's theorized death sentence on top of all that is a lot to ask of a guy who just wants a life outside the mask.
