Spider-Man may be leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Disney and Sony have come to an impasse in negotiations to continue working together…
Spider-Man may be swinging out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Negotiations between Disney and Sony to continue a partnership where the two studios share Spider-Man have broken down and unless a new deal can be reached, the webslinger will no longer take part in any Marvel films and no Marvel characters will appear in those movies.
As first reported by Deadline, the negotiations between Disney and Sony were at a breaking point over money as the two studios battled over profits from future Spider-Man films. The most recent release — ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ — crossed over the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office and it just became the most profitable Sony title in studio history.
According to multiple reports, Disney was seeking a 50/50 split on financing future Spider-Man projects with Kevin Feige staying on board as the executive producer for the films. As of now, Disney reportedly receives five-percent of first dollar gross as well as all merchandising sales on the Spider-Man films.
In early negotiations, Marvel also offered to get involved in a deeper relationship with Sony and the rest of the Spider-Man characters under their control but the studio apparently balked at that offer because that would mean handing over even more money to Disney in the long run.
While a deal could still be reached between Disney and Sony, negotiations have stopped and no talks are currently ongoing between the two studios.
Disney and Sony reached an agreement several years ago to partner together to share Spider-Man as a character, which culminated in Tom Holland being cast in the role and then making his initial appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the film ‘Captain America: Civil War’.
Marvel then co-produced Holland’s solo start in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ before Spider-Man also appeared in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’, which recently became the highest grossing movie in history.
Holland is reportedly still contracted for at least two more ‘Spider-Man’ films and Sony also hopes to retain director Jon Watts after he helmed both ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Far From Home’, although he does not have a deal in place at this time.
Spider-Man has been the biggest franchise for Sony for several years and the studio has started to branch out with more films set in that universe that didn’t necessarily crossover into the Marvel films. ‘Venom’ opened last year earning more than $800 million at the box office, which resulted in a sequel that’s currently in pre-production with Andy Serkis set to direct the movie starring Tom Hardy.
Jared Leto also signed on to star in the ‘Morbius’ movie, which is another offshoot of the Spider-Man universe with more characters and films already in development for future movies at Sony.
Unfortunately unless Disney and Sony can come to some sort of an agreement, Spider-Man will no longer appear in any films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe just as Marvel Studios prepares to launch a new phase of movies following the conclusion of the ‘Infinity Saga’ that ran for 23 films over 10 years.
Feige has long coveted Spider-Man as one of his favorite characters, which helped broker the deal to initially bring him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe but now it appears that relationship could be at an end.
