If Disney and Sony can’t come to an agreement over the financing of future Spider-Man films, Tom Holland’s Spidey could leave the MCU.
This news broke yesterday from Deadline, who revealed that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige won’t produce any more Spider-Man films due to an inability by Disney and Sony Pictures to reach new terms that would have given the former a co-financing stake going forward. The two have been in discussions at the highest level for months, with Disney asking for a 50/50 split on all Spidey-affiliated products and Sony vying to keep the current arrangement of Marvel receiving roughly 5% of first dollar gross. One source said that a walk-back isn’t impossible, but we’ll have to see if anything comes of it.
This is extra tragic, as Deadline’s sources have also said there are two more Spider-Man films in the works and the studio hoped to have director Jon Watts and Tom Holland front and center, though Watts doesn’t have a deal for the next picture. Now, unless something changes, Feige won’t be the lead creative producer of those pictures. Word on the grapevine is that he likes Spider-Man too (most people do!), but according to a statement by Sony (again, to Deadline), he’s just too busy with all the MCU Phase 4 stuff to take another Spider-Man on – completely ignoring the financial side of the discussion, of course.
Sony’s first MCU-rebooted Spidey film, 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, rode the Marvel wave and grossed $880 million USD worldwide. The webslinger went on to be a key character in two Avengers films, eventually leading to the recent Spider-Man: Far From Home that, earlier this week, became Sony’s highest grossing film ever with $1.109 billion USD grossed worldwide. The loss of Fiege and the MCU designation could be devastating, but considering Sony’s self-made success with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and Venom, it might not be so bad.
All we can do right now is wait and see what the future holds for the cinematic side of Spider-Man. Sony currently has a Venom sequel, a Morbius movie, a Kraven the Hunter film, and an unnamed spinoff featuring Silver Sable and Black Cat in the works, probably with a sequel to the hit Insomniac PlayStation 4 game on the way as well. Spider-Man holds the title of being the most popular Marvel superhero, and has been so for decades, so Disney would be insane to attempt to interfere with the brand in any way. We’ll be watching this story closely for any major developments.
