If you looked at the internet recently, you know that one of the biggest news stories over the past week has been that Spiderman is officially out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and no future movies will follow along the web-swinging hero with the name Disney attached to it. It’s crazy and unbelievable, but alas it's true.
Me being the spiderman fanboy that I am, I was devastated when I heard the news. At first I thought it was fake news. The last two Spiderman have done so well and Tom Holland has been welcomed by fans as the new wall-crawling hero on the big screen. So, how could Spiderman possibly be out of the MCU just like that? What went wrong? Where will Spiderman go from here? Whose house do I have to burn down to bring Spidey back? I’ve done some researched, did some introspection, prayed a little and here’s what I think about the situation.
So What Happened?
Most of you guys have probably heard the gist of the story already in that Sony and Disney couldn’t reach a deal on how to proceed on future Spiderman films, so I’ll be brief and straight to the point. Initially, Sony and Disney had a deal to create 5 films with Spiderman within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the Amazing Spiderman movies flopped, Sony agreed to extend the movie rights of Spiderman to Disney giving them a 5% first dollar gross revenue and all money from merchandise made from the MCU Spidey.
Well 5 movies are up and Disney and Sony came together again to talk about the future of Spiderman. Disney wanted a 50/50 co-signing deal, but Sony liked the 5% deal they had going. Both companies couldn’t find a middle ground and thus Spiderman is out of the MCU. It’s like Thanos snapped him out of existence...again!
Fans were, well let’s just say, less than agreeable with this. Social Media blew up with heartache and a thirst for blood, petitions were signed to storm Sony’s headquarters and demand the friendly neighborhood wall crawler back, and of course memes and parody videos on the situation have been popping up everywhere for fans to cope with.
Where Did it All Go Wrong?
What I can’t understand out of this whole situation is how these two big and successful companies couldn’t come to agreement at all. After reading several articles on the issue, it seems like a compromise wasn’t introduced by either company. Both Disney and Sony, were hard set on their terms for advancing the Spiderman movie franchise and neither one would budge.
Disney has accumulated a ton of revenue from their Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel IP’s. Not to mention, the big money they’ll be making with their streaming platform Disney + and the upcoming movies they’ll make now that they bought the movie rights to the X-Men, Deadpool, and the Fantastic Four from 21st Century Fox. So, its really hard to wrap my head around why Disney couldn’t drop down from their 50/50 split deal for one character, especially when that one character is beloved by so many fans and they are clearly capitalizing on so many other ongoing projects..
I can at least understand Sony’s point of view in the negotiations. Sony makes a ton of money off of Spiderman. Ever since the Sam Raimi movies came out in 2002, they’ve been making bank, so it makes sense that they want to keep Spidey close to their chest.
The 50/50 deal that Disney offered just seems like a big leap from a 5% gross revenue deal. Disney would make a ton more money off of Spiderman than Sony would if they accepted the offer. I can understand why they didn’t take the “deal” (if you can even call it that), because they would essentially be robbed out of one of their biggest money makers.
At the same time, I can get why Disney would want to push for more money. A flat 5% day-one cut from the movie earnings isn’t a whole lot, even with the merchandising rights included. That means in order for Disney to make any kind of profit from the movie, they have to invest a lot of time marketing the movie, so everyone will see it on the first day.
The other Marvel movies Disney produces gives them all the money from box office sales, merchandise, and DVD releases. But, one good thing to remember is that Sony pays all expenses to produce the movie, while Disney just waits for the cash to flow in.
Is Sony’s deal the best they can offer? Probably not. I think they could do better, but I also think Disney should lower their offer because it is ridiculous how much they are asking for Spiderman.
Why Is Spidey Out?
My guess as to why these companies decided to walk away from each other is that they believe they can survive on their own. Disney has been very successful with the Marvel movies even before Spiderman swung onto the scene with Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers. Also, after buying the rights to a great new cast of Marvel superheroes for Disney to use, they feel like one less Marvel hero in the mix isn't a huge loss.
Sony, on the other hand, was very successful on Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, which wasn’t part of the MCU. And since they have Tom Holland continue to play as Spiderman, they think the movies they can make with him would be just as good as if they were in the MCU and they’ll be able to keep 100% of the profits from both box office sales and merchandising.
So, both companies believe they have enough to offer on their end that a partnership isn't necessary for Spiderman to come alive on the big screen.
Will the MCU Survive without Spiderman?
The MCU will survive without Spiderman. I really want to say that the MCU relies on Spiderman and Disney should do everything they can to get him back in the MCU, but the truth he’s not a supercritical character in the grand scheme of things.
I will say, it would really suck if he was out of the MCU because Far From Home was building Peter Parker up to be the next Iron Man and the fact that his identity was revealed to the whole world kept people in anticipation to see where Spidereman goes in the next chapter of the MCU. Does he go into a sort of Superhero Protection Program with Nick Fury? Does he join forces with other marvel characters such as the X-Men or Fantastic Four like he does in the comics? Does he accept this identity reveal and wears his suit proudly like Tony Stark and become the next Iron Man? Unfortunately, we’ll never really know now.
But, the fact is, Disney wasn’t reliant on Spiderman to begin with. He wasn’t even introduced until 8 years after the MCU started. While Far From Home helped set the stage for Spiderman to have a bigger role in the MCU in the future, nothing was established yet, so Spidey taking a premature exit doesn’t greatly impact the overarching progression of the MCU.
One of the few people who had a relationship with him is now dead and he didn’t get the chance to make significant connections with any of the other characters, so there’s really not a whole lot of loose ends to clean up. Happy won’t be in the next film, leaving him without love, but the rest of the Spider Man cast will still be around.
Will Spiderman Survive Without the MCU?
Now in terms of how well Sony will do with the Spiderman movies without Disney is another story. Spiderman was introduced in a universe where everything is connected. One Marvel movie ties to another in some way. While, Spiderman didn't get too attached to the characters from the MCU, his life was still impacted by the events that took place in Civil War and Endgame.
Spiderman was first recruited by Iron Man and fought with other heroes in Civil War. He was then mentored by Tony Stark in Homecoming, saw him die at the end of Endgame, and realized that Tony Stark had big hopes for him to take his place as the new Iron Man in Far From Home. All these movies revolve around the relationship with Tony Stark and Peter Parker. Now, you want to all of a sudden pull him out of that and have him do his own thing?
I’m worried that Spiderman has been so built up in this world of connecting characters that if they do continue to make movies outside of the MCU there’s going to be a lot of hurdles to get around to make Spiderman work from now on.
We have to remember that if Spiderman continues without the MCU there will be no mention of the “blip”, no tie ins with any of the other characters established in MCU, and I don’t even think they’ll be able to use any of the suits that Spiderman has worn in the past because they're grounded in MCU characters and events. Tony Stark built two of the Spiderman suits, so we know at least the Stark suit and the Iron Spider suit are out, which are some of the coolest suits introduced to Spiderman. It seems like a lot of Peter’s life was influenced by the MCU, his emotional state dealing with Tony's death, his suits, and his potential to be the next Iron Man. Now, Sony has to essentially scrap all that and try to pick up the best they can where he left on in Far From Home.
One of the biggest fears from fans is that Sony will make a Spiderman prequel movie where Uncle Ben dies again. I don’t know about you but I can’t handle another Uncle Ben death and honestly they’re going to beat the whole “With great power, comes great responsibility” thing to death if they do it again. That would be a big slap in the face to the Spiderman franchise because the only way they can think to keep the Spiderman train going is to go back to the roots and see his origin story...again.
I really liked how they introduced Spiderman in Civil War because Peter Parker was already Spiderman then. Everyone knows Spidey’s origin story. If they don’t know from the comics they definitely know by Sam Raimi’s movies. We’ve seen Spiderman’s origin story twice already and if they did it a third time I guarantee you the movie would bomb horribly.
While Disney’s MCU can survive without Spidey, Spiderman would have a really hard time surviving without the MCU. I’m not saying that the movies relied super heavily on events in the MCU like the infinity stones or anything like that to make standalone films impossible. I know there’s a lot of story to go around with just Spiderman and his friends and family. However, when you introduce a character into an expanding world like the MCU its hard to really take them out of it without the viewers feeling like they missed something.
I know many people loved the overarching story of the relationship of Peter Parker and Tony Stark and wanted to see that develop more or have Spidey develop relationships with other MCU heroes in the future, but now they can’t. As much as Marvel fans love to connect everything from one movie to the other in the MCU, they won’t be able to do that nearly as much with the standalone Spiderman films, since they’ll be completely separate now. The farthest they can really connect back to is the identity reveal in the last 30 seconds of Far From Home.
The only good thing that I know would be worth looking forward to is the possibility of a Venom/Spidey crossover movie. Venom did well in theaters and a sequel is already on the way. If Spiderman stays with Sony for good, that might be worth seeing. There’s also Into the Spider Verse 2 in development and I know that will definitely be a great film to watch whenever it comes out! But, in terms of standalone live-action Spiderman movies, it’s a 50/50 chance. Sony did two waves of live-action Spiderman movies. One was great and one sucked, so let’s hope they learned from their lessons and can deliver. Tom Holland seems pretty optimistic about Spiderman's future, so maybe there's something he knows that we don't?
Where Do We Go From Here?
Now I still hold out hope that Disney and Sony can come back together and hash out a deal that makes Spiderman part of the MCU again. And rumors are floating around that Disney and Sony are negotiating again (in secret!). It would be awesome if they could bring him back because Tom Holland brings a nice charm to the MCU and he would dearly missed if he just disappeared from that universe.
If you’re like me and are looking on the internet everyday wondering if Spiderman is back or not, there’s this cool fan-made website that tells you exactly that. If you go to https://isspidermanbackinthemcuyet.com/, you’ll be able to know for sure if Sony and Disney were able to reach a deal. It’s a simple and funny website, so I would check it out!
What are your thoughts on the Sony/Disney breakup? What do you think will happen to Spidey now that he’s broken up with MCU? Post your thoughts in the comments below!
