There may be no future for Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Report: Spider-Man will leave the MCU, as Marvel and Sony end their partnership
The character’s cinematic future suddenly looks bleak at best.
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.
According to a report from Deadline, Disney and Sony have recently been at odds over Marvel’s involvement in Sony’s rebooted Spider-Man franchise, and their disagreement has resulted in both sides walking away from what has been a very successful partnership. Per Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr.:
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige won’t produce any further Spider-Man films because of an inability by Disney and Sony Pictures to reach new terms that would have given the former a co-financing stake going forward. Disney asked that future Spider-Man films be a 50/50 co-financing arrangement between the studios, and there were discussions that this might extend to other films in the Spider-Man universe. Sony turned that offer down flat, and I don’t believe they even came back to the table to figure out a compromise.
The move bucks a 2015 agreement between the two film studios under which Sony — which owns the film rights to Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker — would allow Marvel to welcome the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The webslinger would go on to be played by Tom Holland in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War before making his solo debut in 2017, in Sony and Marvel’s co-produced Spider-Man: Homecoming. (He then later appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and his own sequel, the co-produced Spider-Man: Far From Home).
Marvel and Sony’s partnership allowed Sony to keep Spider-Man’s film rights and earn piles of money at the box office, while Marvel got to incorporate the character into the MCU. Marvel also received a first dollar gross — which usually refers to a a percentage of the movie’s gross revenue — payout in the range of 5 percent according to Deadline’s sources. The specific details of Marvel’s deal with Sony isn’t public knowledge.
Holland’s Spider-Man has become an essential Marvel superhero, and his relationship with Tony Stark has been a consistent throughline in the last three years of Marvel storytelling. He was also expected to be a cornerstone hero — along with Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther — who would take over for the original trinity of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America in Marvel’s upcoming movies.
Deadline’s report — which comes less than two months after Spider-Man: Far From Home became Sony’s biggest movie worldwide — calls the character’s cinematic future into question. Neither Disney nor Sony has officially commented on the matter, but for now, it seems like Spider-Man’s future existence in the MCU is bleak at best, an “I don’t feel so good” moment for fans of both Spider-Man and Marvel.
Update: The article has been updated to be more clear about Marvel’s “first dollar” deal with Sony, and to reflect that Deadline’s sources believe Marvel’s deal to be around a 5 percent cut of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home’s gross revenue. Neither Marvel or Sony has confirmed the specifics of the deal.
