The friendship between Peter Parker and Johnny Storm is one that’s famous in the comics, but according to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, it might soon be brought to the big screen with the duo’s live-action counterparts, Tom Holland (Uncharted) and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things).
“That’s one of the key relationships in Marvel Comics: Johnny Storm and Peter Parker.” Feige explained during an interview with CBR, “We’ve never been able to come close to it before. And now it is in the realm of possibility. That’s exciting.”
In the comics, Spider-Man and the Human Torch began as rivals, but eventually grew to have mutual respect, ultimately becoming friends and even roommates at one point. The duo often exchanged banter and teamed up on multiple occasions to defeat various foes, with Spider-Man joining the Future Foundation temporarily, an organisation founded and led by the Fantastic Four, with the pair’s playful and competitive dynamic regarded by fans as a team-up for the ages.
Now that the Fantastic Four are finally receiving their Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut with the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps, fans have been speculating and clamouring for the team-up of the two superheroes onscreen.
Additionally, another famous comic book friendship that the webcrawler has in the comics is that with Deadpool, one that fans have also been asking for. Given that Ryan Reynolds’ (Free Guy, The Adam Project) Deadpool has also joined the MCU as of last year’s billion-dollar blockbuster, Deadpool & Wolverine, this also opens another possible friendship that could make its appearance onscreen. However, while Deadpool and Spider-Man are traditionally similar-aged equals in the comics, it remains to be seen how the dynamic between Reynolds, who is significantly older, and Holland will look onscreen.
Ironically, Spider-Man’s two good friends, Deadpool and Human Torch, have already met onscreen, with Reynolds’ Deadpool encountering a variant of Human Torch, with Chris Evans (Materialists, Ghosted) reprising his role from 2005’s Fantastic Four, although Evans’ character is only canon to the MCU’s multiverse and will not be its Earth-616 variant, which is rumoured to be the version played by Quinn in the upcoming film.
Nevertheless, with Jon Bernthal’s (The Accountant 2, The Bear) Frank Castle making an appearance in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day alongside Holland, that will be another interesting crossover friendship that fans will be treated to onscreen. With a return to the character’s street-level crime-fighting roots in the fourth instalment of the MCU Spider-Man franchise, fans can look forward to Spider-Man’s team-up with Bernthal’s Punisher to tackle new threats in New York City.
For fans still eagerly awaiting the Human Torch’s playful antics with Spider-Man, they will at least be able to catch one-half of the duo in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which hits theatres on 24 July 2025.
Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he’s not sleeping, he’s highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it’s honestly pretty close.
Kevin Low
