It’s Official: Spider-Man Coming Home To Marvel Cinematic Universe As Sony, Marvel Ink Movie Deal
Spider-Man is one of Marvel’s most popular characters, but the web-slinger hasn’t been able to play with his friends in the Avengers, thanks to Marvel having sold off the movie rights to Spider-Man and other properties years ago. Now, though, that’s about to change, as a new report has Sony and Marvel coming to an agreement that will eventually bring Spider-Man into contact with Marvel’s Avengers franchise.
Variety broke the news Monday night, saying that Sony Pictures Entertainment had announced a new partnership with Marvel Studios. The deal will reportedly see Marvel’s Kevin Feige producing films alongside Sony’s Amy Pascal. Readers will recognize Pascal as the co-chairman of Sony, who recently announced that she will be stepping down and taking on a producer role in the wake of some embarrassing emails leaking to the internet.
Reportedly, Sony will continue to finance, distribute, own, and have final creative control over the Spider-Man films, with the next Spider-Man set for release on July 28, 2017. Just what that will mean in terms of what the Spider-Man movies will look like remains to be seen, but Marvel fans will no doubt be happy to see that the wallcrawler has come home.
The big takeaway is that “Marvel and Sony are exploring ways to weave Spider-Man into Marvel’s upcoming superhero films.” That includes the Avengers franchise, and it could well mean Spider-Man popping up in other Marvel properties, such as the forthcoming Daredevil and Luke Cage series from Netflix.
“Spider-Man is one of Marvel’s great characters, beloved around the world,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger. “We’re thrilled to work with Sony Pictures to bring the iconic web-slinger into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which opens up fantastic new opportunities for storytelling and franchise building.”
On Sony’s end, executives were equally upbeat about the Spider-Man deal going through.
“We always want to collaborate with the best and most successful filmmakers to grow and develop our characters,” said Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. “This is the right decision for the franchise, for our business, for Marvel, and for the fans.”
The deal comes at the end of months of speculation, as talks between Marvel and Sony were revealed in the aforementioned email leaks that appear to have brought down Amy Pascal. At the time, it was revealed that Sony and Marvel were considering working Spider-Man into the third Captain America movie, Civil War. The leaked emails may have scuttled any existing deal, though it is also possible that they contributed to its success, as fans across the internet went wild over the possibilities.
Since then, each month has brought new speculation on just how Spider-Man might pop up in a Marvel movie. Most recently a rumor emerged that Spider-Man was set to appear in Avengers: Infinity War, with Sony and Marvel having supposedly sealed the deal. Now, with official word that the two entertainment giants have in fact come to an agreement, that might just be the case.
[Lead image via Movie Pilot]
