Well, that was a stressful month!
Not too long ago, it was announced that the Spider-Man we’ve come to know over the last few years, the one played by Tom Holland, would no longer be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Why did this happen? HOW could this happen? It had to do with the licensing deal between Sony and Marvel. You see, although he appears in films made by Marvel, Sony actually owns the movie rights to Spider-Man; it has for years, since way back when it was making Spider-Man flicks with Tobey Maguire. Although I didn’t realize this until I looked into it, the solo Spider-Man movies starring Holland are actually Sony productions…with a twist. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige helps out on the producing end to make sure those solo films stay consistent with what’s happening in the rest of the MCU. That’s also why non-Spider-Man MCU characters like Nick Fury can show up in Spider-Man: Far From Home. And in return, Sony let’s Holland’s Spider-Man appear in stuff like Avengers: Endgame. Sony and Marvel had kind of a joint custody thing going on.
But they didn’t split the money equally. Basically, Sony got most of the money for the solo Spider-Man movies and Marvel got the cash for the MCU stuff with Spider-Man in it. Then Disney — Marvel’s parent company — approached Sony with a new idea: they wanted to invest equally in the production of new solo Spider-Man movies and share the revenue equally. Sony said no, and suddenly Spider-Man was out of the MCU.
But no longer! Variety reports that the companies have made up. Feige will help produce a sequel to Far From Home, and Holland’s Spider-Man will appear in at least one future MCU movie. “I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it,” said Feige in a statement. “Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.”
Under the terms of the new deal, Marvel and Disney will get about 25% of the profits from solo Spider-Man flicks, down from the 50% Disney originally suggested. I wonder if that means they’ll be footing 25% of the production costs. Given that Far From Home became Sony’s highest-grossing film ever, it’d probably be worth the investment.
Tom Holland and Zendaya (MJ) both hit back with reactions on the social media:
— Zendaya (@Zendaya) September 27, 2019
And that’s that. Spider-Man is back where he belongs, and we can all breath a little easier.
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