How Old Is Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Every Movie (Including No Way Home)?
The Spider-Man movie universe is a bit confusing, really. So far, we’ve had three major series, with three separate actors and continuities, and that is not counting the animated movies and the old ones. Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and now, Tom Holland, are the three modern-day Spider-Men that have defined several generations and fans are often wondering just how old each Peter Parker/Spider-Man was in every movie, including the most recent No Way Home.
Peter Parker was born in 1984 in Sam Raimi’s trilogy, meaning that he was between 17 and 20 years of age in the three movies. In the Marc Webb movies, Peter Parker was born c. 1995 and was 17 in the first movie and 19 in the second one. Finally, the MCU iteration of Peter Parker was born on August 10, 2001 meaning that he was 15 in the first movie and 23 in the second and third movies.
The rest of this article is going to be divided into three major sections, each of them dealing with one of the three major cinematic Spider-Men. We are going to go through all three series and give you all the information you need to know about each of them and how old they were in their respective movies.
Sam Raimi Trilogy
How Old Is Peter Parker in Spider-Man?
Set in: 2002
Age: 17-18
Peter is a shy, bespectacled outsider at Midtown High School in New York who has a long crush on his neighbor Mary Jane Watson. Before a school trip to Columbia University, Peter meets his best friend Harry Osborn, who introduces him to his father Norman, the CEO of Oscorp, whom Peter worships.
As Peter, Harry, Mary Jane and their classmates inspect the university’s genetics lab, Mary Jane notices one of the 15 genetically modified spiders on display missing. The spider falls on Peter as he photographs MJ for the school newspaper and bites him. Back home, Peter becomes ill and faints in his room.
The next morning, Peter discovers that he no longer has myopia and that his body is now in excellent physical shape. He also discovers that he has developed arachnid superpowers that allow him to avoid injury during a confrontation with Flash Thompson, Mary Jane’s boyfriend; Peter knocks Flash out with one blow, although he later apologizes to Mary Jane for this. Noticing Flash’s new car, Peter decides to impress Mary Jane with his own car.
Shrugging off Uncle Ben’s advice that “with great power comes great responsibility,” he participates in an underground wrestling tournament to raise money and wins his first match, but the promoter tricks him. When a thief suddenly robots a promoter’s office, Peter lets him escape. After a few minutes, he learns that Ben has been killed.
Furious, Peter pursues and confronts the hijacker, but realizes that it was the thief he allowed to escape. After Peter has neutralized him, the hijacker escapes, but is killed by falling out of the window. This is how Spider-Man was born.
How Old Is Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2?
Set in: 2004
Age: 19-20
Two years later, Peter tries to keep his personal life separate from his Spider-Man persona, he gets fired from his second job as a pizza delivery guy, while struggling with his studies at Columbia University and financially. He estranges himself from his friends Harry and Mary Jane, who are both successful as Oscorp’s new CEO and Broadway actress, respectively.
Harry introduces Peter to his idol, Dr. Otto Octavius, whose research is funded by Oscorp, before demonstrating Octavius’s work on thermonuclear energy. During the demonstration, Octavius dons a harness with four robotic tentacles and artificial intelligence. Despite a successful start, the demonstration becomes unstable.
Octavius ignores Harry’s demands to turn off the device, and Peter puts on a suit to disconnect him from the power, but not before the explosion kills Octavius’ wife and assistant Rosalie, and a tourniquet is attached to his spine, destroying also the inhibitor chip that is holding Octavius under control.
As Peter and May go to the bank to challenge the dispossession of her assets, Octavius, now increasingly under the influence of the device and nicknamed “Doctor Octopus” or “Doc Ock” by J. Jonah Jameson, robs a bank in an attempt to fund a second attempt at his experiment.
Peter puts on his costume again and engages in combat with Doctor Octopus, who is holding May hostage. Spider-Man manages to save May despite Octopus escaping with the money, thereby starting the main fight in this movie.
How Old Is Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3?
Set in: 2005
Age: 20-21
After a few months, Peter finally found stability and success both in his personal life and in his activities as Spider-Man. He and Mary Jane meet happily, and after attending her performance in a new play, he catches up with her in Central Park. A meteor falls nearby, erupting a goo-like alien symbiote and attaching itself to Peter’s moped.
After sending Mary Jane home, he talks to Aunt May, who gives him an engagement ring, given to her by Uncle Ben, encouraging him to propose to MJ. On the way home, Peter is ambushed by Harry, who has used his father’s equipment and Goblin’s serum and intends to avenge Norman’s death, despite Peter telling the truth about Norman’s death. An aerial chase ensues, resulting in Harry being knocked out when Peter traps him.
After suffering from amnesia and forgetting about his revenge on Spider-Man, Harry wakes up in the emergency room and again accepts Peter and Mary Jane as his best friends. Mary Jane is upset with negative reviews for her performance, and Peter tries unsuccessfully to mend a relationship with her using his Spider-Man experience. Later, she does not inform him when loses her role in the play.
At work for the Daily Bugle, Peter discovers that his rival photographer Eddie Brock has also started photographing Spider-Man, and Jameson pits the two photographers against each other for a spot on the state. This rivalry will ultimately lead to the birth of Venom, Peter’s main nemesis in this movie.
Marc Webb Duology
How Old Is Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man?
Set in: 2012 (primarily)
Age: 6 (flashback) / 16
Peter first appears in the film as a six-year-old boy when his father Richard Parker drops him off at Uncle Ben’s and Aunt May’s home after he discovered that his documents had been looted. Richard tells his son that he and his mother will return after completing the assignment, but both mysteriously disappear.
Years later, Peter is reintroduced as a high school student at Midtown Science High School in New York. Although he is not one of the popular students, he does well in his studies, but he is bullied by school athlete Flash Thompson. After Gwen Stacy breaks up a fight between Peter and Flash, in which Flash attacks Peter for protecting another student, Peter and Gwen begin to flirt with each other.
After discovering a portfolio of his father’s works and receiving support from Uncle Ben, Peter searches for his father’s colleague, Dr. Curt Connors. Peter immediately searches the Internet for information about the work of Richard and Connors, which leads him to discover the death of his parents in a plane crash. Peter infiltrates Oscorp, posing as one of the interns, and finds the one-armed Dr. Connors after bumping into Gwen, who is actually an intern there.
Connors is under pressure from his boss, Dr. Ratha, to invent a cure for the dying head of Oscorp, Norman Osborn, and Connors also wants a cure for himself to restore his arm. After Peter manages to infiltrate the biocable lab, out of curiosity, he touches the web, causing several genetically modified spiders to fall on him, one of which bites him in the back.
On the way home on the subway, he discovers that he has developed spider-like abilities such as super strength, keen senses, reflexes, agility and speed.
How Old Is Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?
Set in: 2014
Age: 18
Two years later, Peter, as Spider-Man, helps the NYPD chase a stolen truck with plutonium while trying to get to high school graduation. He detains the criminals, led by the gangster Alexei Sytsevich, before getting to the ceremony where Gwen makes a speech. The couple agrees to meet for dinner, after which their mother calls to take a family photo.
Later that evening, Peter tells Gwen about his visions of her father and insists that he should keep his promise, causing them to part ways again. Peter visits Harry Osborn, his childhood friend, after the death of his father Norman. Later that night, Peter meets Gwen in an attempt to maintain a friendship, and Gwen tells Peter that she might have to move to England if she receives an Oxford University scholarship.
Before the two of them can discuss it, Max Dillon, the electrical engineer whom Spider-Man had saved earlier, accidentally turns off the electricity in Times Square while looking for electricity for himself, as he had mutated into a living electrical generator following an incident involving electric eels. Dillon is stopped by Spider-Man after a police battle and is taken to the Ravencroft Institute, where he is studied and tortured by German scientist Dr. Kafka.
MCU Trilogy
How Old Is Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming?
Set in: 2016
Age: 15
Peter Parker was born on August 10, 2002 in Forest Hills, Queens. For most of his life, he was raised by his uncle, Ben Parker, and his aunt, May Parker, after his parents died. In 2011, at Stark Expo, Parker was attacked by a drone, but was saved by Iron Man. In 2016, Parker is a teenager in high school who lives with his aunt May Parker in Queens, New York.
He meets Tony Stark at his apartment, who reveals that he knows Parker is Spider-Man, and recruits him for an internship. Having been sent to Germany, Parker receives a new Spider-Man costume sent from Stark and is flown to Leipzig/Halle airport to help Stark, James Rhodes, Natasha Romanoff, T’Challa and Vision in the fight against Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton and Scott Lang. After the fight ends, Stark takes him back home.
Two months later, Parker continues to balance his life as a high school student, while fulfilling his role as the superhero Spider-Man. One night, Parker returns home to find his best friend Ned Leeds in his bedroom, who discovers his superhero identity. Ned promises not to tell anyone.
Later, Peter and Ned attend a school party, but Parker immediately leaves and saves Aaron Davis when he tries to buy Chitauri guns from Jackson Brice and Herman Schultz, allowing the drug dealers to flee, but Parker follows them before being caught by their boss Adrian Toomes.
How Old Is Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Far From Home?
Set in: 2024
Age: 17 (due to the effects of Thanos’ snap)
In 2024, Parker, still mourning Stark’s death, goes on a summer school trip to Europe with Ned and other classmates, on which he plans to reveal his romantic feelings for his classmate MJ. During the trip, Parker and his colleagues encounter an aquatic monster in Venice, which is defeated by an unknown man named Quentin Beck.
Parker is approached by Nick Fury to help battle the Elementals and appoints Beck as Parker’s teammate to defeat them. Fury also gave Parker the E.D.I.T.H., an artificial intelligence created by Stark originally as his successor. Parker and Beck defeat the remaining Elementals in Prague. After Beck gains Parker’s trust, Parker hands over the E.D.I.T.H. for Beck.
However, one night, as Parker tries to confess his romantic feelings to MJ, she guesses Parker is Spider-Man, a fact he at first denies, until the two discover Beck’s fraud in using hologram projectors to create visually the Elementals, which causes Parker to confirm to MJ that he is Spider-Man.
Beck reveals that he was a former associate of Stark who was fired for being unstable. Parker travels to Berlin to alert Fury of Beck’s fraud, only to be tricked by Beck using his illusion technology.
How Old Is Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home?
Set in: 2024
Age: 17 (due to the effects of Thanos’ snap)
After the revelation of his secret identity at the hands of Mysterio, Parker’s life is interrupted by legal troubles, constant surveillance of his private life and those close to him, and a cult of personality focused on Mysterio. Although he is able to legally clear his name with the help of attorney Matt Murdock, he is still routinely vilified by Jameson and Mysterio’s followers, and his public identity prevents him, MJ and Ned from being admitted to MIT.
Feeling guilty, Parker seeks out Stephen Strange, asking him to cast a spell that will make everyone forget he is Spider-Man. Strange agrees to cast the spell, but it backfires when Parker continues to add new terms to the spell, causing Strange to turn off the spell. Parker then tracks down an MIT admissions officer to convince her to reconsider Ned and MJ for school, but is ambushed by Otto Octavius, a scientist from another universe with four mechanical limbs.
Parker saves the officer from the destruction of Octavius and is soon captured, along with Octavius, by Strange, who explains that the unsuccessful spell brought people from other universes who knew of his secret identity in their universe. Strange tasks Parker, Ned and MJ in finding and capturing the other “visitors” so he can send them back to their universes.