What’s Going on with Spider-Man and the MCU?

When it comes to everyone’s favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, there’s no denying that he’s going through something of a moment right now.

Ever since his not-so-surprise introduction in Captain America: Civil War, a de facto Avengers movie, introduced him to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Spidey’s been on a hot streak. Buoyed by the amazing casting of classically trained dancer and actor Tom Holland, who brought an energetic, eager, excited touch to the role, heavily inspired by the “Ultimate Spider-Man” comics, Spider-Man has made his way back into the public mainstream.

However, not all is well in the kingdom of the Spider-Man, with rumours that the rights could return back to Sony soon. But what’s the real story?

Marvel and Sony – Wait, what?

To really understand the current paranoia around Spider-Man and the MCU, you’ve got to understand how Marvel and Sony got into this mess in the first place. Way back in 1999, before Marvel was part of the frankly-insane Disney empire, Marvel was in the business of licensing the rights to their major characters to studios. In return, the studios would pay for the production and distribution of the movies, pay a fee to Marvel and collect the profits.

It’s this deal that Marvel struck with Sony Pictures Studios, who took over the Spider-Man license in 1999, in line with other deals, like selling X-Men to Fox.

As we all know, Sony went on to make five Spider-Man films, three helmed by Sam Raimi with Tobey Maguire in the lead and two further films, part of a reboot helmed by Marc Webb, with Andrew Garfield in the title role.

However, while the first two Spider-Man films where both fantastically popular and well-received, the third in the original trilogy and the two films in the rebooted universe were less successful (on both fronts). Not only that, but they were failing at exactly the same time as Marvel’s own cinematic efforts were proving to be huge hits.

Quite simply, Sony wanted in on that success. So, they struck a deal to share the character, with Sony Pictures financing and distributing the pictures, but Marvel Studios acting as creative lead, effectively allowing the two studios to unite to create a better Spider-Man. At the time, reports suggested that the deal meant that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man could appear in 5 MCU movies, something that’s now a major concern to all Spider-Man fans. 

Is Time Running Out for MCU Spidey?

Following Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man Homecoming and the forthcoming Avengers: Infinity War event, it would appear that there are only two remaining appearances for Holland’s Spider-Man before the rights return to Sony.

That’s potentially a huge deal, with a vast network of merchandising and licensing stretching from toys and tie-in comics all the way to Betsafe Casino branded slot games based on the property. Oh, and that’s without mentioning the prospect of yet another reboot of the character from Sony.  However, it seems as though things aren’t as clear-cut as they first seem.

First up was Amy Pascal, the woman behind the historic deal, who said that Sony working with Marvel after Spider-Man Homecoming 2 “may never happen again”. This, naturally, struck huge fear into the hearts of those who’ve taken the MCU version of Spider-Man into their hearts. However, she was contradicted by Homecoming director Jon Watts who suggested at Sydney’s Supanova Comic-Con that rather than what it sounded like, Pascal was saying “It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… as opposed to putting a ticking clock [on Spider-Man].”

These comments seem to suggest that rather than it being a strictly limited deal, there’s no sword of Damocles over the MCU Spidey. However, with the details of the deal strictly confidential, we just can’t know.

If only the Daily Bugle could weigh in. Now that’s journalism you can trust!