When Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced earlier this week that Spider-Man would finally be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a few details were revealed about the future of the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. It was said in the announcement that Spidey would appear in a Marvel movie before starring in his own solo film scheduled for July 28, 2017 that will be co-produced by Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Sony’s Amy Pascal. There were a few big details that still remained a mystery though. But now it looks like we have some answers to some of the biggest questions regarding what’s to come for one of the most iconic superheroes in all of pop culture.
First, there’s the small matter of money. They don’t call it the movie business for nothing, right? But according to a report from Variety, Marvel Studios isn’t paying Sony anything for the rights to include Spider-Man in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ or any future MCU films. Sources say that neither company will receive a cut of the box office from the other’s films that feature the character. Instead, the financial situation is more comparable to the compensation that a producer would receive, which is fine with them since the deal will benefit both sides because “Sony needed to breathe life into its ‘Spider-Man’ franchise” and “Marvel now gets access to one of the comic book company’s most popular characters.” Originally, Marvel just wanted to flat out buy back the rights to the character, but now it appears that Hollywood is working together (for once) and giving the fans exactly what they asked for, this partnership is just good for everyone.
Well, maybe not for Andrew Garfield. The 31-year-old ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ franchise star is no longer playing the web-slinger. Sony and Marvel are “looking to go back to Spidey’s roots and put the character back in high school, which would require it to cast a younger actor”. It’s being said that ‘Perks of Being A Wallflower’ and ‘Percy Jackson’ star Logan Lerman and Dylan O’Brien of ‘The Maze Runner’ and ‘Teen Wolf’ are being considered for the role, but Sony is currently searching for a director to guide the whole thing and help figure out if they even want to go with another Peter Parker or with Miles Morales, the half African American/half Puerto Rican character that takes up the Spidey mantle in the Ultimate line of Marvel Comics. I’m rooting for the latter since audiences are tired of seeing Peter Parker star in two different film series within five years of each other. Chances are that this decision will be made sooner rather than later since the new actor is meant to appear in ‘Civil War,’ which is likely heading into production very soon.
Finally, regarding Sony’s slate of Spider-Verse films that were meant to expand their franchise, ‘Sinister Six’, ‘Venom’, and a female-centric film are all still in active development. Despite Kevin Feige’s involvement in all things Spider-Man, it’s being reported that his influence won’t extend to the spinoffs. It sounds unlikely that Marvel would let Sony play in their cinematic universe without letting them have some sort of say in what happens, but we’re likely to hear more on this soon since Drew Goddard’s villain team up film is scheduled to be released on November 11, 2016.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, with Garfield (and presumably director Marc Webb) out of the picture, ‘Amazing Spider-Man 3’ and ‘Amazing Spider-Man 4’ are definitely cancelled.
Though there are still lingering questions about this deal, this latest report does address a good bit. Which is the most surprising bit of information that you take away from this partnership? Are you surprised that Sony and Marvel plan to take Spider-Man back to high school again? Are you sad to see Andrew Garfield go? And what do you think about the names being thrown around to take over? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments below.
