Unfortunately for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra has confirmed Spidey’s out.
In a discussion with Variety, Vinciquerra declared that “for the moment the door is closed” on Spider-Man talks. He followed up by cryptically noting that “it’s a long life,” implying that there’s still a chance the web-slinger could return to Marvel-and-Disney owned films in the future, but for now, it’s all Sony.
Vinciquerra insisted that there is “no ill will” between Sony and Marvel, after the two failed to reach an agreement on financing terms for upcoming Spider-Man movies, effectively removing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man from the Marvel fold in terms of both future standalone and team-up features. However, he also did acknowledge the fan backlash to the news, saying that it has been “an interesting couple of weeks” for the studio.
Vinciquerra pointed to Marvel boss Kevin Feige being “stretched incredibly thin” with new additions coming to the MCU as one of the reasons behind the breakdown in talks. Fan consensus is that Disney and Marvel wanting more money out of the arrangement was the chief cause, but those involved have remained mum on the issue.
“We had a great run with [Feige] on Spider-Man movies,” the Sony chief continued. “We tried to see if there’s a way to work it out[…] …the Marvel people are terrific people, we have great respect for them, but on the other hand we have some pretty terrific people of our own. Kevin didn’t do all the work.”
Don’t worry about not seeing Spider-Man’s cast again, Sony’s got you covered. Vinciquerra reinforced that Sony is building up its own cinematic universe of Spider-Man characters, and a long-time fan such as myself can confirm that there’s a whole lot of good ones. Venom 2 is entering production, a Morbius film is on its way, and “five or six” television shows are in the pipeline. Between that and the all-but-confirmed Spider-Man 2 game from Insomniac, fans of the wall-crawler have a lot to look forward to. In the meantime, CGMagazine will be sure to keep you up-to-date on any developments on this front.
