There are some things that just go well together. Peanut butter and jelly, nachos and cheese, patties and burger buns, Spider-Man movies and funeral scenes, etc. Throughout the years... wait, what? Indeed. Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most upbeat crimefighters. He's funny, quippy and colorful—all aspects that have cemented him as a family-friendly icon over the decades.
Overall, the Wall-Crawler is a perfect entertainment package for families. That's exactly why he's been such a big-screen staple for nearly three decades. However, Spidey's reputation as a fun softy will probably make it surprising to realize that his live-action adventures have an oddly consistent tradition of featuring depressing funeral scenes.
Five Spideys And A Funeral
There have been eight live-action Spider-Man films since 2002 (note, I am not counting Sony's live-action spinoffs like Madame Web or Kraven the Hunter). Out of those eight, five have featured big funeral set pieces. The tradition began with Spider-Man (2002), starring Tobey Maguire. In the film's climactic battle, Norman Osborn's Green Goblin impaled himself with his glider in an effort to kill Peter Parker. This led to the movie's second-to-last sequence being Norman's funeral, where, weirdly enough, Mary Jane confessed her love for Peter and kissed him... right there among the tombstones.
Anyway, 2004's Spider-Man 2 presented a brief interruption to what would become the aforementioned trend. That time around, instead of mourning a death, audiences mourned Mary Jane's potential marriage, as she decided to leave John Jameson for Peter. Fret not, though, because the funeral trend began to take shape in 2007's Spider-Man 3. Following a battle against Sandman and Venom, Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn, died after being impaled with his own glider by Venom. That resulted in audiences being treated to another somber funeral scene (weirdly enough, for yet another Osborn).
Five years later, in 2012, Sony rebooted the franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. A lot of things were changed from Tobey Maguire's version, but one thing remained: You guessed it, the funerals. The film culminated in a battle between the Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Spider-Man. This time, however, Spidey wasn't alone; he had help from Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary), father of his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.
While buying time for Peter to stop the Lizard's serum from infecting New York City, Captain Stacy was impaled by the former scientist, and perished in front of Peter (but not without first making Spidey promise he'd leave Gwen out of his crimefighting endeavors). Following that, we were treated to yet another funeral scene for the captain. This one, though, was much more extravagant, featuring multiple law enforcement officers and what seemed to be a full movie theater's worth of attendees.
Taking the streak to an impressive three movies in a row, The Amazing Spider-Man 2's third act also featured a funeral, this time for Gwen Stacy. During Spidey's final battle against the Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), Gwen fell to her death in a clock tower. Despite Peter's efforts to catch her, Gwen cracked her head on the ground, leading to the rebooted franchise's second funeral scene.
Breaking The Streak... For A Bit
Following The Amazing Spider-Man 2's perceived financial disappointment (it made $708 million worldwide), Sony struck a deal with Marvel Studios to bring the Wall-Crawler over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From that, 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming was born. The film, starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker and Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, was an upbeat reinvention of the Spider-Man mythos, which also (perhaps inadvertently) meant doing away with the funeral scenes.
This break from the commemoration of life continued with 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home, which saw the Web-Slinger go to Europe for a much needed vacation... that, of course, got hijacked by the super-villain Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). However, just like a scorpion stinging someone out of pure instinct, the Spidey franchise could not stay away from its roots for long. In 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home did the unthinkable in live-action: It killed Aunt May. In an effort to help cure villains that had died in battles against his multiversal variants, Peter and May brought the Green Goblin, Sandman, Doctor Octopus, Electro and the Lizard to Happy Hogan's apartment.
Despite successfully curing Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin persona took over Norman Osborn, and after a heated (and, quite frankly, straight-up brutal) battle, Aunt May was hit by the Goblin's glider. While she seemed okay at first, she ultimately passed away in front of Peter, paving the way for the funeral trend to return... sort of. You see, the funeral itself wasn't shown in the movie, but we did see Peter paying her grave a visit in a bittersweet scene. So, while not precisely a funeral, it still counts toward the trend.
Featuring funerals or cemeteries in Spider-Man movies is, as mentioned, a curious trend, but one I ultimately don't believe developed deliberately. Despite the upbeat nature of Spider-Man's stories, death and failure are important aspects of the hero's mythos. As such, it makes sense that the creative teams behind his many movies have revisited the concept of Peter losing a loved one so many times, without ultimately realizing the trend that was building up in the process.
The question now is: Will the funeral trend continue in Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Who knows? Having said that, chances might be high, considering Frank Castle, the freakin' Punisher himself, is in the picture this time around.
Spidey's latest big-screen adventure, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, arrives in theaters on July 31, 2026.