Spider-man is a Marvel hero who, in comic book land, has helped the Avengers and the Fantastic Four plenty of times. In movie land Sony Pictures has the rights to Spider-man and hadn’t been willing to let such a lucrative hero go.
Until now.
The deal struck between Sony and Marvel means that Spider-man will appear in a still-to-be-named Marvel Cinematic Universe picture (some people are suggesting Civil War is likely). After that Sony get to release a standalone picture.
The press release said;
“Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU),”
“Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017.”
You may notice the phrase new Spider-Man is used too. That means Andrew Garfield is (very likely) out as Spider-man. Marvel are looking to reboot.
If the plan is to get Spider-man back to canon then we may be dealing with a very young hero – perhaps still at school. It certainly means movie plans for the like of Sinister Six will be reset and characters like Venom will be some time away. Venom’s far too tough for a rookie Spider-man to take on.
This seems like a win-win for the studios. Marvel get a little more control of their Spider-man back. If they don’t put him in a big name title like Civil War and save him for a less well known hero – Doctor Strange, perhaps – then that’s a way to add a bucket of interest to the other movie. Meanwhile, Sony get their fingers into the hugely successful MCU.
More news on the Spider-man deal via the BBC.
