Sony And Marvel Strike A New Deal To Keep Spider-Man In The MCU

Sony And Marvel Strike A New Deal To Keep Spider-Man In The MCU

After the shocking news that Marvel and Sony’s backroom deal to share the rights to one of the most popular superheroes in the world broke up last month, it seems the tumultuous saga is already over: The two studios have announced a new deal to co-produce a third entry in the Spider-Man: Homecoming series.

According to reports, as part of the deal, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige will produce the film alongside Sony’s Amy Pascal, which has currently been given a 16 July 2021 US release date. The deal will also allow Tom Holland’s iteration of Peter Parker to appear in future films in both Sony’s fledgling Spider-verse of potential movies and Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Here’s the full statement from Feige via Deadline:

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. 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.

The prior deal between the studios saw Disney take approximately five per cent of the box office earnings for both films in the Homecoming reboot series, directed by Jon Watts, with new claims alleging that this revived deal will now see the megacorporation take approximately 25 per cent.

The announcement comes after what has been a tumultuous month of back-and-forth regarding Spider-Man’s future in the wake of Far From Home, which became the highest-grossing release in Sony’s history this past winter.

Initially the deal between the two studios — which has seen Feige and Marvel Studios co-produce Far From Home and its predecessor, Homecoming, while also allowing Spider-Man to appear in the Marvel Studios-made films Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame — fell apart over Feige’s role in producing the Spider-Man movies.

Shortly after the news broke, Sony released a statement alleging Feige’s lack of time to work on “IP [Disney] do not own”, and it was recently reported that Feige’s duties at Disney would now grow beyond his stewardship of Marvel Studios to also include producing a new Star Wars film with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy.

[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2019/08/spider-man-showdown-sony-releases-an-official-statement-to-clarify-its-disney-relationship/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/jvrv8mnssbray3syj0ku.jpg” title=”Spider-Man Showdown: Sony Releases An Official Statement To Clarify Its Disney Relationship” excerpt=”Sony has released an official response to the recently reported news that Disney and Sony reached an impasse on its Spider-Man partnership, calling many of the stories “mischaracterised” and squaring much of the blame on Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige’s workload.”]

In the month since fans — and even an army of alleged bots — have set the social media afire with outrage at the sudden loss of Spider-Man’s presence in the Marvel movieverse, especially in the wake of several shocking revelations made in the course of Far From Home that had ramifications for the character’s arc beyond just his appearance in future films.

Both Feige and Holland himself spoke out about their regrets in the deal’s flickering out, making it seem like an impossibility that Sony and Marvel would reach a compromise any time soon.

Well, now none of that matters now! And as Sony continues to develop its own slate of Spider-adjacent movies leveraging the characters it has access to beyond Spider-Man himself, at least now it does so knowing that Spider-Man’s great power and responsibility also now includes making the dimensional hop between ginormous movie studios with ease.