NEWS

Will Spider-Man disappear from future Marvel films?

Published on: 21st August 2019

The web-slinging hero may no longer be a part of the Marvel slate after Sony and Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige failed to reach a co-financing deal. 

Disney’s Marvel Studios may be moving forward without Spider-Man after it failed to reach an agreement on a co-financing deal with Sony, which retains the standalone movie rights to Spider-Man, that would have given it a 50/50 co-financing stake in future films.

On the last two Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, Disney took a smaller percentage of profits from each (roughly 5% of first dollar gross), in exchange for Sony allowing Marvel to use the character in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. It was arguably inevitable, reports IndieWire’s Tambay Obenson, that Disney would want to renegotiate the agreement in favour of a more equitable deal between the two major studios on future Spider-Man movies.

According to a Deadline report, Disney’s offer for a 50/50 co-financing arrangement between the studios, which might extend to other films in the Spider-Man universe, wasn’t met by a counter from Sony, suggesting that the latter isn’t currently interested in entertaining a renegotiation of the current agreement.

The news comes as the last two films produced by Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, broke all-time records — Disney’s Avengers: Endgame became the highest grossing film of all time, and Spider-Man: Far From Home this week surpassed the James Bond film Skyfall to become the all time highest grossing film for Sony Pictures.

While Marvel has plenty of other stellar superheroes in its arsenal, it could be said that Spider-Man is perhaps its biggest; if a deal to keep hold of him can’t be reached, the MCU will ultimately be moving forward minus one of its biggest assets.

Sony, meanwhile, has made moves to establish its own Spider-Man universe, with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Venom already released; both have sequels on the way.

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