The Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy

Teaser Poster

Superior Spider-Man by Dan Slott

***The Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy***, or simply ***My Own Worst Enemy***, is an upcoming British made fan film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, produced by GeekE Movies and distributed by Fruit Punch Pictures.  It was originally planned as the sequel to The Spider-Man but has now become the first chapter in the fan version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) which has been dubbed the Marvel Cinematic Fanverse (MCF). The movie will be an adaptation of the Superior Spider-Man story arc from the comics.

## Behind the Scenes

### Development

Moore had said many times how the Superior Spider-Man was his favourite Spider-Man comic arc and quite possibly his all time favourite comic book arc, commenting on how well written it was and containing some of his favourite artwork so when it came to ideas for a possible sequel to The Spider-Man, it was selected for the inspiration of the story. All six volumes of the arc graphic novels were in Moore's possession so he had plenty of material to work with as well as ideas on the title, eventually choosing volume 1 "My Own Worst Enemy" as the title. "It just sounded good, the others [volumes] had good titles too with Troubled Mind and Necessary Evil being two others with great titles but My Own Worst Enemy sounded the best to me so I ended up choosing that" Moore explained. Writing commenced halfway through production of The Spider-Man also serving as motivation to complete the movie. The arc will be adapted and altered slightly with some characters and subplots being scrapped, new characters introduced and some characters being switched out but many of the key subplots and characters will appear in it and the follow up. In December 2017, Moore decided to scrap The Spider-Man moving onto My Own Worst Enemy after careful thought about it however he has stated they will come back to The Spider-Man in the future with alterations and rewrites.

### Pre-Production

Moore was still in the process of writing My Own Worst Enemy by the time of the decision to use it as the new movie but in terms of casting, Moore was of course still in the role of Peter Parker and Spider-Man as well as the Superior Spider-Man. In his announcement about the new direction, he stated that some characters and their respective actors would remain while some would replaced and/or dropped completely as well as new characters being added. Adam Warner is expected to reprise the role of Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus as well as Lewis Mackenzie as Frank Castle/The Punisher. Charlotte Elizzabeth expressed interest in reprising her role as Mary Jane Watson for the sequel when asked stating she would use a wig for the character's signature red hair instead of dying it. Razz Berry will remain a part of the project however he is in talks for who he will play after changing from Agent Venom to Wonder Man in the original. Nathan Osell and his father Neil may stay in the project as their characters of Beast and J Jonah Jameson respectively. Jordan Lightstone was originally cast as the villain in the original script however with the new direction, Moore decided to change his role, offering him the chance to play Deadpool in My Own Worst Enemy, a character who was not featured in the original comic book arc but one that Lightstone was well suited and good at playing. Moore also confirmed Miguel O'hara/Spider-Man 2099 would make an appearance as well as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat who would serve as a replacement for Anna-Maria Marconi, the love interest of Peter from the comic. Harry Osborn would still be featured in the story and would go through his evolution becoming the Hobgoblin instead of the Green Goblin, an evolution beginning in My Own Worst Enemy and ending in The Superior Spider-Man to be recast.

 Cast

* Ryan Moore as Peter Parker / Spider-Man:

After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter gained incredible abilities beyond mortal men.  Peter has been Spider-Man for several years and has become quite experienced as a superhero.  Moore had been a fan of Spider-Man since he was a child, being long fascinated by his powers and abilities but as he got older he realised just how much he related to the character seeing multiple parallels between his own life and that of Peter Parker’s.  He said from the very beginning of the project he would play Spider-Man and everyone agreed if anyone was qualified enough to portray the superhero it was him.  Moore said, “My friends know me as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, the son of someone I know even calls me Spider-Man despite seeing me without the mask on.  In recent months I’ve even had some people tell me I look like the current Spider-Man actor, Tom Holland, which is a terrific confidence boost”.  Moore is signed on for any other MCF projects including any Spider-Man sequels and any potential future projects.

* Charlotte Elizzabeth as Mary Jane Watson:

The girl Peter was introduced to by his Aunt May while trying to get into a relationship with Gwen Stacy. Mary Jane aspires to be a model and make something of her life that her abusive father constantly told her she wouldn’t do and was there for Peter when he lost Gwen.  She is one of the few who knows Peter is Spider-Man.  Moore knew that Mary Jane was one of the most important characters to cast for the project and put out the casting call to a group he was part of.  He was surprised at how many people showed an interest in the role however the number dropped down to a single actress whom he had previously worked with.  Charlotte Elizzabeth auditioned and was successfully cast in the role.  Of her audition, Moore said “We (myself and  the casting director) were blown away.  I had chosen four scenes to audition her for and we ended up only doing three of them, we were that much in awe of her performance, we felt she captured the character of MJ brilliantly and she had the look even without the red hair which she agreed she’d be willing to dye that colour for the role”.

* Georgia Haines as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow:

An assassin turned member of the Avengers and agent of SHIELD, Black Widow is one of the deadliest and most valuable allies of Spider-Man.  The character was one of the first, aside from the titular character, that Moore confirmed was to be in the story.  Moore wanted to have other Marvel characters in the story but wanted to keep away from major names from the MCU like Captain America or Thor and after some thought he selected a number of characters and Black Widow was one of them.  Georgia Haines was the only name considered for the role due to her red hair and similar personality traits to the character and after auditioning she was selected to play the character.  “Black Widow is one of the ultimate bad ass female characters and I was thrilled to be asked to audition for her” Haines said after the casting, “I wasn’t at the top of my game the day of the audition but it was great that even with that they saw something in my performance and signed me on”.  Moore has since gone on to say “she encapsulated what I wanted for the character, I am confident Georgia can pull it off and if she does a good enough job we might seriously consider pursuing a Black Widow movie for the MCF”.

* Ryan "Razz" Berry as Steve Rogers/Captain America:

From the very beginning, Berry was connected to the project when ideas of plotline were still being considered willing to play any role he was offered.  When the final story was chosen, he was initially cast in the role of Agent Venom but spoke with Moore about how limited he was in his range of movement in the Agent Venom armour. "I did try writing so that he didn't have to do too much in as I was aware what he could and couldn't do but that wasn't enough." Moore explained "We threw around names like Iron Fist, Daredevil and Hawkeye, members of the Avengers who weren't the most powerful compared to the likes of Captain America or Thor but we eventually settled on Wonder Man which coincidentally was a character Razz wanted to cosplay".

* Lewis Mackenzie as Frank Castle / The Punisher:

A self styled vigilante that uses his military and SWAT training to deal out his own form of justice on the criminals of New York City.  When it came to deciding who would be on the Avengers in this universe, Moore said he liked the idea of having the Punisher part of it “Frank is basically a wild card.  Yes his methods are somewhat unorthodox and not what the Avengers stand for but he is useful to them and in a way it’s their way of keeping him in check and making sure he behaves”.  Mackenzie auditioned for the part, aware that his American accent needed serious work and they were satisfied with what he brought so signed him on as the character stating they would work with him on the character as well as Mackenzie doing a heap of research himself.  There has been no word on whether Punisher would get his own movie within the MCF.

* Nathan Osell as Hank McCoy / Beast:

A mutant that has blue fur all over his body with a high IQ as well as being fast and strong, member of both the Avengers and the X-Men.  “I knew I wanted to bring mutants into this from the very beginning of writing, we’re not bound by rights so there’s nothing stopping us from bringing connections between the X-Men and the Avengers into this story, we wanted to show that the two could interact and work together in a movie” Moore said about the X-Men being mentioned or included.  When asked about which mutant he would be including he also said; “Wolverine was a bit of an obvious choice he’s almost like the go-to mutant, I didn’t want to choose Cyclops as I think the character is a bit of a douche so the next option was a different mutant and initially the idea of bringing Squirrel Girl in was thrown around and I got close to settling on her but then a friend asked if he could be involved and he had already dressed as Beast before so I auditioned him and thought right there and then ‘our mutant will be Beast’”.

* Jordan Lightstone as Wade Wilson/Deadpool:

Additionally, Richard Mark Milne as the voice of Stark's AI butler JARVIS. Jonathan "Jono" Pomeyie was cast as Nick Fury for an appearance in a credit sequence to set up a potential follow up/spin-off. Logan Moore was initially cast as Harry Osborn however the role will now be recast.

## Crew

* Ryan Moore - writer, director
* Elijha-Adams Collorick - assistant director, casting director
* Alex Lathey - cinematographer
* Rhys Lewis - assistant cinematographer, behind-the-scenes director
* Lewis Mackenzie - editor
* Jordan Lightstone - editor, 2nd assistant director
* Lauren Wakefield - makeup

## Gallery

Teaser poster for "My Own Worst Enemy"Official logo