Sorry Marvel Fans, Spider-Man Is No Longer Part Of The MCU
Marvel fans everywhere are crying tears of despair. After two successful movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Spider-Man character will no longer be part of the MCU. Marvel Studios parted ways with Sony, effectively cutting Tom Holland’s character out of the franchise. Spider-Man is one of the most iconic Marvel superheroes and Marvel Studios consistently rules the box office, so what does this mean for the MCU?
MCU fans are not happy about the Spider-Man change
Within an hour, the news trended on Twitter. At first, some fans thought Tom Holland would no longer appear as Spider-Man. As the news spread, it became apparent that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will now appear in movies solely under Sony.
“so sony really doing the marvel fandom dirty like that? im not okay,” wrote one Twitter user.
“tony made peter parker an avenger, AND NOW HE ISN’T AN AVENGER ANYMORE THANKS TO SONY,” wrote a fan.
“it doesn’t make any sense to me why this happened…. spidey movies do sm better when marvel is in charge of them and everything was going so well.. them ending the deal all over not agreeing on some things is so dumb and unfair to everybody??????,” wrote another.
“Another day, another Peter Parker ruined by Sony,” wrote a fan.
Spider-Man was going to be the focus of MCU’s Phase 4
Spider-Man: Far From Home grossed over $1 billion at the global box office. Moving forward, Peter Parker was designated to be the main focus of the MCU. According to Marvel president, Kevin Feige, Spider-Man was going to fill the role originated by Iron Man. In addition to his solo movies, Peter Parker was going to make appearances across different MCU movies the way Tony Stark did.
“So much happens in [the 3rd and 4th Avengers movies], as you can imagine, and so much is affected by it that we felt what better person to hold your hand and lead you into the next incarnation of the MCU, in a grounded, realistic manner, than Peter Parker,” Feige said.
At the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios did not announce a new Spider-Man movie. Some fans were confused by this, but it was not Marvel’s choice. Based on the former agreement between Sony and Marvel Studios, it was up to Sony to promote and announce Spider-Man movies.
The deal between Sony and Marvel was never stable, and fans worried about an outcome like this since Spider-Man: Homecoming.
In 2017, a producer was quoted saying, “One of the things that I think is so amazing about this experience is that you don’t have studios deciding to work together to make a film very often. In fact it may never happen again, after we do the sequel [to Spider-Man: Homecoming].”
It seems fans’ worst fears about the shaky agreement came true.
What happened between Marvel and Sony?
According to Deadline, Sony and Marvel Studios were unable to negotiate new financing terms. This means Kevin Feige will not produce any future Spider-Man films.
“Disney asked that future Spider-Man films be a 50/50 co-financing arrangement between the studios… Sony turned that offer down flat… Sony proposed keeping the arrangement going under the current terms where Marvel receives in the range of 5% of first dollar gross, sources said. Disney refused,” Deadline reported.
The last two films Feige produced broke grossing records. Avengers: Endgame is the highest-grossing movie of all time, and Spider-Man: Far From Home is Sony’s highest-grossing film. Only time will tell if Sony’s future Spider-Man films will be successful without Feige, but fans don’t seem confident.
