More details have surfaced from the “Sony hack” on the discussion between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures on Spider-Man’s future in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. While the exclusive from ComicBookMovie.com paints a hopeful picture, there is no corroborating evidence from the documents or from either studio that the discussion has continued or that any action will be taken in regards to a cross-over. However, the documents do give Marvel and Spidey fans a taste of what Spider-Man’s future could be, and what fangirl or fanboy doesn’t love to dream of the impossible?
Sony appeared to have quite a few demands on artistic control issues like having final approval on Spidey’s costume, who would be playing Spider-Man, and that the approved actor would need to sign a contract for a minimum of three movies if not more. The documents stated that Drew Goddard had been pre-agreed upon to both write and direct the first movie while Sony specifically stated that Kevin Feige must be a producer unless he left Marvel, in which case Sony would choose the replacement. They added that Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach were to be given executive producer credits.
As for the specifics on how and when Spider-Man would appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, according to the documents:
If Spider-Man appears in Captain America: Civil War, Sony will co-finance 25% of the movie. Marvel then co-finances 25% of Spider-Man’s next solo film which is scheduled to be released in July 2017. The deal allows Sony to use TWO major Marvel characters and continue the plot from Civil War in regards to how it relates to Spider-Man. Spider-Man would also appear in Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 in 2018, with another Marvel produced Spider-Man movie following in July 2019.
The documents continue on that if any Marvel movie that features Spider-Man misses a release date, Sony would be entitled to $100 million in damages and the deal would be terminated. Sony also wanted Marvel to ensure “D Machine” would be available for any of Spider-Man’s solo movies as well as any TV shows, radio broadcasts, theme parks, and more. Obviously, if the deal were to go through it would be announced in a joint press event on a mutually agreed upon date.
While nothing has come forth since the documents release, fans can still be hopeful that talks even happened and perhaps a common ground can be found between the two studios. However, and rather unfortunately, knowing how spiteful Marvel’s CEO, Isaac Perlmutter, can be since he cancelled the entire Fantastic Four comic series to spite Fox for soured negotiations over rights to several characters, it would not be overly surprising if nothing comes from the exchange between Sony and Marvel. Fans can only hope that one day Marvel will collect their characters back and then co-sponsor a Marvel Vs. DC movie of epic proportions.
Last Updated on November 28, 2018.
