In a late night announcement that sent the hearts of comic book nerds everywhere into arrhythmia, Marvel Studios and Sony Entertainment announced late last night that Spider-Man will be joining Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the details of the deal aren’t public, through various leaks and rumors it’s possible to put together an idea of what the deal looks like.
In the wake of the comic book industry crash. Marvel Comics had sold the movie rights to a number of their most popular characters, Spider-Man included. Due to the nature of these deals, competing studios often had a claim on different parts of a character’s universe; in the case of Spider-Man, MGM and Columbia (a subsidiary of Sony) both had claim to Spider-Man, as well as James Bond. In 1999, MGM agreed to relinquish their rights to Spider-Man, while Sony via Columbia gave up James Bond.
Three years later, Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire was released to critical acclaim and immense financial success, giving Marvel a foothold into Hollywood that it had previously been unable to leverage. The Tobey Maguire trilogy would wrap with 2007’s Spider-Man 3, which failed to live up to the success of its predecessors.
After the release of Spider-Man 3, Sony was on a ticking clock. They had a limited amount of time to release another spider-film before the rights reverted back to Marvel, who had created a juggernaut in the form of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, tying together all the Marvel properties under one roof. Consequently, Sony rebooted Spider-Man in 2012 and released The Amazing Spider-Man, which continued the series’ critical and financial decline.
2014 was the turning point for the franchise, as Marvel released Guardians of the Galaxy and Sony released The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in the same summer. Marvel’s take on a previously D-list group of superheroes was a critical and financial blockbuster, becoming one of the highest grossing films of the year, while Sony’s efforts with an A-list hero fell absolutely flat. In late 2014, Sony Entertainment was hacked by a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace, reportedly over Sony’s release of The Interview. The hack aired Sony’s dirty laundry, including the news that Sony and Marvel had been talking about bringing Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ditching the current iteration of the character, along with the plans for Venom and Sinister Six spin-offs.
On February 9th, 2015, Marvel and Sony jointly announced that a rebooted Spider-Man would be joining the MCU through an existing property, and that the new Spider-Man would be hitting theaters solo on July 28th, 2017. The addition of Spider-Man to the MCU roster has pushed existing films Thor: Ragnarok (11/3/17), Black Panther (7/6/18), Captain Marvel (11/2/18), and Inhumans (7/12/19) back several months to accommodate Spider-Man. The release dates for Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part II remain unchanged.
The press release from Marvel and Sony doesn’t shed much illumination on the deal itself, but the rumors that cropped up in the wake of the Sony hack shed some light on what the deal probably looks like.
From the Press Release:
- Spider-Man will be recast.
- The next solo Spider-Man film will be released on July 28, 2017 by Sony, and co=produced by Kevin Feige of Marvel and Amy Pascal of Sony.
- Sony will finance, distribute, own, and have final creative control of the new Spider-Man films.
- MCU characters like Thor, Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man could appear in future Spider-Man films.
Now, from the rumor mill:
- The first appearance of MCU Spider-Man is likely to be Captain America: Civil War, with Doctor Strange the other possibility.
- MCU Spider-Man will not start with an origin story; Peter Parker will already be Spider-Man when introduced.
- MCU Spider-Man will not be a continuation of the previous Sony films; it will be a fresh start for the character in the MCU.
So, while Spider-Man isn’t under the roof of the House of Mouse full time, at the very least he has an apartment and a lease.
Looking ahead, if the Sony-Marvel collaboration becomes successful then the possibility of integrating Fox’s Marvel properties (X-Men and The Fantastic Four) into the MCU exists as well. All four Fantastic Four members as well as Wolverine, Storm, Havoc, and Sunspot have been Avengers at one point.
This deal is a big win for everyone. Sony saves face by bringing in the team that knows superhero movies better than anyone, with a sustained track record of success, while keeping the rights and a modicum of control, as well as being able to tap into the latent popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe instead of trying to compete with it. Marvel gets to bring in one of the most popular superheroes of all time into their super-franchise and generates a staggering amount of buzz around the next phase of their films. With critically acclaimed actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Andy Serkis, and Daniel Bruhl joining the MCU, Marvel has the clout to pull in A-list talent to fill the wall-crawler’s red and blue tights. Finally, the fans get what they want with a Spider-Man that exists alongside all the other characters in the MCU.
