Say it isn’t so! Spider-Man is no longer part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Reports have come in that Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige has pulled out of agreements to produce future Spider-Man films due to profit sharing disputes between Marvel’s parent company, Disney, and Sony Pictures, who own the rights to the franchise.
The news means that future appearances of Spider-Man and its franchise characters will not be seen in upcoming Marvel films. It also means that there will no longer be cross-overs from characters in the MCU, like Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, in Spider-Man films. This puts a significant strain on upcoming Spider-Man films, of which there was supposedly between five to seven upcoming films.
The Disney-Sony partnership could have been said to have been one of the best deals Sony could have made considering that Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home did significantly better at the box office than any of the previous Spider-Man films that Sony produced on its own.
Many attribute the success of the recent Spidey films to Feige and the MCU, which makes the dispute somewhat fair. The previous Disney-Sony deal gave Disney only 5% of the Spider-Man films’ gross box office revenue. Given the success of Far From Home, which Disney feels is predominantly due to the attachment of the franchise to the wider MCU, the entertainment giant has now called for a 50-50 split.
Of course, it’s not surprising that Sony would want to keep the majority on its biggest property. However, according to Deadline, it did offer compromises to reach an agreement with Disney, but naturally, Disney refused.
Sony appears to believe that it is capable of continuing without Marvel, given that it has two more films with director, Jim Watts, and Tom Holland.
Beyond that? No one knows.