If you thought cinematic Spider-Man was coming back to Marvel, he is, but apparently not with total creative control. Spider-Man hasn’t been in the Captain America: Civil War trailer nor the posters. And that’s not a creative matter, that’s a legal matter. Sony and Marvel Studios are still working out the details of how Spider-Man will appear on promotional material.
Negotiations for how the web slinger will be used in movies was thought to have been worked out when Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios agreed on a mutually beneficial deal. The deal was quite a steal for both parties, but negotiations in every aspect, according to Cinema Blend , haven’t been fully worked out, even at this point. Spider-Man is now property of two different companies with unique visions for his future.
Tom Holland Spider-Man Movie Will Be Big & Spectacular https://t.co/B8OTJYP996 pic.twitter.com/YxSLWwKHEi
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) January 7, 2016
This latest revelation runs counter to what was revealed earlier this month by the directors. They hinted that the reason fans won’t catch an early glimpse of the Spider-Man reboot is because they want to make full use of the element of surprise. They are changing the way Spider-Man looks and feels to fit him into the world they already established in the Captain America movies. That world is stylistically different from what any of the previous Spider-Man movies have shown. The Russo brothers’ are adding their trademark emphasis on current day realism.
The Russo brothers told ComicBook.com what was essential to capture about this latest Spider-Man reboot.
“We had thought back to the things that excited us about him as a character when we were younger, and one of the most important components of that was that he’s a high schooler burdened with incredible powers and responsibility. That really differentiates him from every other character in the Marvel universe as opposed to other superheroes. For us, it was extremely important that we cast somebody very close to the age of a high school student.”
Sony has owned the rights to movie Spider-Man since 1999. In that time they produced five films starring the web head. They were extremely displeased with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 , to the extent that they cancelled making The Amazing Spider-Man 3 . They were also eager to get Andrew Garfield out of the Spider-Man role, believing him to be part of the problem. In the new deal with Marvel, both companies can still use Spider-Man in their own movies.
The benefit to Sony is that they please fans by throwing Spider-Man into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, gaining more fan loyalty rather than keeping Spidey hostage and apart from his Avengers brethren. The benefit to Marvel is that they don’t have to pay to have Spider-Man come back home to the Marvel Universe. They haven’t had the same luck with 20th Century Fox, and so their other popular comic book heroes, like the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, remain in the control of others.
But the Russo brothers plan to give Spidey a spectacular homecoming. They want to take Peter Parker from a place closer to his young, goofy high school origins and place him in the modern world. Captain America and Falcon were given just such a treatment, as you can see by their sleek costumes and real world scenarios. Their costumes resemble slick, special forces military gear rather than candy colored comic book wear.
#SpiderMan and #Jumanji have receieved new release dates: https://t.co/3WoWWmxTL4 pic.twitter.com/4uxonyUbcx
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) January 21, 2016
After Captain America: Civil War , the new Spidey will once again look to hold the attention of the movie world with his own solo movie, due out on July 7, 2017. That’s a full three weeks earlier than the date announced around the time Marvel and Sony first came to agreement. The Spider-Man deal should be mutually beneficial to both sides, as long as disputes on what Sony or Marvel does or doesn’t agree on don’t slow things down even more.
[Photo by Mike Pont/Getty Images]