The Interwebs are all a’buzz today about news from overseas, where Amazing Spider-Man 2 is opening internationally. It seems that the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past movie has a teaser in the credits of the Spidey sequel.
Some folks immediately took this to be a sign that Fox and Sony were about to get together on a shared universe, bringing Spidey together with the X-Men Cinematic Universe – which Fox has already threatened to join up with their upcoming Fantastic Four reboot.
But IGN explains the X-Men teaser and why it’s not a reason for anyone to get excited just yet:
And now we have the reasoning behind all this, and it’s all very contract-based and mundane. According to Variety, the insertion of this scene in Spider-Man 2 happened because the film’s director Marc Webb “had an existing contract with Fox Searchlight to helm another film following 2009′s 500 (Days) of Summer. After The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, Webb’s negotiations briefly stalled with Sony as he was caught in a tug-of-war with Fox. Eventually, Fox agreed to allow Webb to direct Sony’s Spider-Man sequel, but only if Sony would promote its X-Men film for free.” Hence the mid-credits stinger.
And there you have it. I’m surprised Spider-Man producer Avi Arad didn’t find a reporter to rant about how there’d be “nothing in it for them” by letting Spidey mix it up in a shared movie universe.
–George Berryman!
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
I don’t know about Sony, but that is how I feel about Fox.
If this does happen, it’ll prove that both FOX and Sony have run out of ides with the franchises.
The casual movie-goer, or non-comic reader is generally not in the know about obscure legal nonsense.
I’m aware of all the contracts, and even I for a moment thought Sony and Fox might have come to an agreement. At this point their only hope to make Marvel (Disney) money would be to so a Spider-Man/Wolverine movie. My brain knows it’ll never happen, thanks to all the executives and lawyers, but my heart really wishes they could sort it out.
… are there actually people out there that are SO clueless that they actually think that Sony and Fox are gonna do this? For crying out loud, they won’t even give the rights for the characters back to the actual owners!!!
Good grief, I hope the crossover never happens