Spider-Man’s Cinematic Future Appears Safe with Marvel, Sony Deal

Disagreements between Sony and Disney had fans of Spider-Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in an outrage, but a last second deal appears to have saved the partnership between two of Hollywood’s powerhouse studios. The disagreement had put Spider-Man’s appearance in any future Marvel movies at stake following the initial deal made in 2015 with Sony that incorporated Spider-Man into the MCU.

A recent story by the Hollywood Reporter revealed that fans played a large part in preventing the Sony/Disney split.

“The fan base, which is important to all of us, seemed to really respond to what Tom and his folks have done before with our people. They like the fact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Kevin Feige were involved [in the two Spider-Man films]. We heard feedback out there that suggested that joining forces once again was probably really a good idea,” said Disney’s Alan Horn.

A CNBC news article reported that, “In the initial deal between the two companies, Sony would allow Marvel’s creative team to integrate Spider-Man into its cinematic universe and would put up 100% of the production costs.” Sony was in charge of any and all production costs of any Spider-Man movie made. Disney was content with a small percentage of those selling profits as well as gaining all of the merchandising profit. 

The newest deal Disney proposed however, called for a 50/50 split in profits, which would be much more than what the original deal stated. Many fans have sided with Disney — as Disney owns Marvel, and by extension, the MCU — and have gone so far as to create the tag #BoycottSony on Twitter, blaming Sony for the possible removal of Spider-Man.  

Sony has been building its own “Spider-verse”, as there have been more and more plans to make content centralized on Spider-Man. Spider-Man:Into the Spider-Verse, has introduced a sort of “origin story” for Miles Morales, and is getting a sequel and a promised Spider-Gwen side story. Along with the movie Venom (2018), Sony has slowly began to build this universe centralized on the Spider-Man franchise. 

Cinemablend.com states, “Potential crossovers with Venom and Morbius, as well as the recently announced Madame Web spinoff, had the potential to head into the really weird, interconnected world that their properties have shared in the comics.”

In doing this, it is obvious that Sony wants to extend this franchise as they have rights over the comic book character, Spider-Man. 

Junior Sean Ryland-Winter said, “Sony has done better with Spider-Man than Disney has, and I honestly want Sony to keep the rights to him because of the new Spider-Verse.”

Thankfully, the results have played out that Sony will continue with the character, even after initial news and information about excluding Spider-Man from the MCU, Peter Parker will remain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Before the news that Spider-Man will remain in the MCU, many fans were upset that they would not see Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man in any future Marvel Movies. It was unfortunate in a storytelling standpoint as Marvel had to struggle writing out Spider-Man before this announcement. 

*SPOILER ALERT* The deal was especially important to the MCU as end credits scenes from Spiderman: Far from Home revealed Peter Parker to be Spider-Man through a report from the re-envisioned DailyBugle.net. The end credits scene revealed a major plot twist that infinitely increases the importance of Spider-Man in phase four of the MCU.

This means that Spider-Man will at least finish its Spider-Man: Homecoming movie trilogy when under the story of the MCU and will most likely feature once more in a Marvel movie. 

“I’m glad that [Spider-Man is back in the MCU] because he’s my favorite out of the Marvel superheroes,” said Junior Melody Baker. “So I’m looking forward to more movies with [Tom Holland].”