By DAVID MIN
Staff Writer
As many of you may know, Spider-Man is reportedly leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) after failed talks between Sony, who holds the film rights to the webbed warrior, and Disney, the parent company of Marvel Studios.
The reason for this split, which was originally reported by Deadline, is a dispute over the shared revenue and Kevin Feige’s future involvement in the Spider-Man films.
In light of Far From Home‘s success, raking in $1.122 billion worldwide, Disney reportedly requested to increase their share from 5% to 50%. While this would have increased their funding involvement in the future Spider-Man films, it would also have given Disney a massive increase in revenue, which Sony refused to do.
Additionally, Disney pulled Kevin Feige, the head produce and president of Marvel Studios, from the Spider-Man series, essentially ending Spider-Man’s inclusion in the MCU. While Sony states that Feige was far to busy on other series to produce Spider-Man, Deadline‘s report indicates that the move was a response to Sony’s refusal to give Marvel a bigger piece of the revenue.
Currently, Sony holds the rights to Spider-Man and all affiliated characters, including his villains, Venom, and the other Spider-Men. They acquired these rights from Marvel in 1999 for $10 million, which had previously been sold in 1985 by Marvel to avoid bankruptcy. Sony then created two Spider-Man film series: one starring Toby Maguire in 2002, and the other starring Andrew Garfield in 2012.
However, following the lack of domestic success of The Amazing Spider Man 2, Sony made a deal with Marvel to include Spider-Man in the MCU in order to raise their profits, which led to Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s release in 2017, which starred Tom Holland.
Holland will continue to portray Peter Parker in any upcoming Sony films, and has expressed his excitement for potential crossovers and the expansion of the Spider-Man universe.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Holland said, “The future for Spider-Man will be different, but it will be equally as awesome and amazing, and we’ll find new ways to make it even cooler.”
But while all seems bleak for fans of the MCU, especially following the shocking end-credits scene of Far From Home, there is still some hope. According to entertainment news site We Got This Covered, Disney and Sony are reportedly still in talks about the future of Spider-Man, and while Sony announced that a deal would have to be reached by mid-2020, before the start of production for the new Spider-Man film, there is still plenty of time for the two companies to figure something out.
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Spider-Man Swings out of the MCU
September 17, 2019
Tom Holland currently portrays Spider-Man, but that may soon change (photo by Gage Skidmore, used under Creative Commons).
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