Ever since Tom Holland has taken on the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, the character has had a mentor of sorts by his side to guide him. Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark began that role in a small way in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR before going on to be his Avenger's father figure of sorts in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. In SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, Stark was absent due to his fate in AVENGERS: ENDGAME but Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and, to an extent, Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan stepped in to provide direction. Even Jake Gyllenhaal's Quentin Beck filled that role a bit until his true intentions as the villainous Mysterio became clear. It was announced last week that Benedict Cumberbatch would be bringing his Doctor Strange character to SPIDER-MAN 3 and while most think he'll be present to set up a multiverse storyline, the main narrative was that he would be stepping in as a father figure of sorts for Peter Parker in the upcoming sequel. This seems to be a running trend with the character throughout the MCU films he has appeared in but SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE director, Peter Ramsey, doesn't think that the character needs another mentor in SPIDER-MAN 3.
Ramsey took to Twitter to speak his mind as to why the character should be standing on his own two feet and doesn't need a mentor anymore. While he seems down for Cumberbatch to appear in the film, he's hoping it is in a capacity that would make him fall into another father figure for the character. You can check out Ramset's tweets below:
Ramsey does make a good point that, at this point, the character should be able to carry his own weight without a mentor to guide him. Initially, it made sense because the character is young and maybe needed guidance but the character didn't particularly need that guidance in the comic books. Sure, the character made mistakes but he learned a lot about being a hero through his own trial and error. He had his Uncle Ben's influence ("with great power, comes great responsibility") but he navigated a lot of these things on his won.
The main reason for the mentor roles is likely to surround Holland with bigger names so he personally doesn't carry the weight of the films on himself. I'm also sure there could be some contractual obligations they're trying to fulfill so that the actors can appear in the number of films promised to them. That's all well and good but it could be time for Holland's Spider-Man to put on his big boy pants and go at it alone.
Do YOU think Spider-Man needs another mentor?