Spider-Man: Far From Home will be the last time we’ll get to see Tom Holland’s Spidey play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Deadline reports that Sony and Disney have parted ways after the two could not come to terms on a new deal.
A quick breakdown of how we got here: because intellectual property rights are weird, Marvel didn’t have access to every Marvel character when it started building the MCU back in 2008 with Iron Man. Fox had the movie rights to characters from X-Men (Disney solved that problem by buying Fox not long ago), and Spider-Man was controlled by Sony.
Eventually, Disney and Sony came to an agreement: Disney could use Spider-Man — now played by Tom Holland — in MCU movies like Captain American: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. In return, Marvel chief Kevin Feige would produce Sony movies like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, making sure they stayed consistent with the rest of the MCU. All of these movies were enormous hits, but Sony and Disney didn’t share many of the profits between them.
Just lately, the House of Mouse wanted to change that, and suggested a 50/50 co-financing agreement with Sony for future Spider-Man movies, meaning that the studios would split the profits down the middle. Sony, which had been giving Disney 5% of first-dollar gross (aka 5% of the money made on solo Spider-Man movies on their first day in theaters), said no.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 26: Jake Gyllenhaal arrives at the premiere of Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Far From Home” at TCL Chinese Theatre on June 26, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
And so here we are, with Sony and Marvel breaking up, and Spider-Man going to live with his dad…or mom…whatever parent Sony is. It’s possible that Sony could use the Tom Holland version of Spider-Man in future movies — the studio is currently readying a full Spider-Man movie universe, with Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse already box office successes and movies revolving around characters like Morbius and Black Cat in the works — but if that happens, the new movies won’t be able to even mention the MCU. No more Nick Fury cameos, no more emotional fallout from Tony Stark’s death, etc. Holland’s Spider-Man is pretty well embedded in the MCU by this point, so that would be strange.
It’s possible Sony will just reboot the Spider-Man franchise again, casting another actor to fill the shoes of Tobey Maguire and then Andrew Garfield and now Tom Holland.
There may be some hope left. According to Buzzfeed News, “negotiations between Disney and Sony about the character’s fate remain ongoing, including how much Sony’s Spider-Man movies could remain a part of the MCU.” That’s good to hear, although based on a statement released by Sony and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, things seem frosty:
"Much of today’s news about Spider-Man has mischaracterized recent discussions about Kevin Feige’s involvement in the franchise. We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live action Spider-Man film.We hope this might change in the future, but understand that the many new responsibilities that Disney has given him – including all their newly added Marvel properties – do not allow time for him to work on IP they do not own. Kevin is terrific and we are grateful for his help and guidance and appreciate the path he has helped put us on, which we will continue."
Right, Kevin Feige can’t work on the Spider-Man movies anymore because he’s too busy. That’s definitely the real issue. Disney, would you care to release your own passive-aggressive statement?
At the end of the day, this move that sucks for fans of Spider-Man and the MCU, but hey, at least Far From Home is being re-released in theaters on Labor Day with four whole minutes of new footage, so…silver lining? Enjoy it while you can.
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