The Scene staff
The big movie news that’s been setting the internet on fire is the surprise announcement that Spider-Man will no longer be part of Marvel Cinematic Universe, or “MCU” for short.
What does this mean?
Tom Holland, who’s portrayed the beloved character in “Captain America: Civil War,” the last two “Avengers” movies and two of his own, will not be sharing the same “universe” with characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange and the Avengers anymore.
For many fans and moviegoers, this news is very disappointing. The last two Spider-Man movies, before Marvel rebooted him for a third time, were less than well received. Andrew Garfield played Spidey in “The Amazing Spider-Man” and the cleverly named sequel, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
The last five pre-MCU Spider-Man films faded into obscurity and now are generally accepted as the more forgettable ones, similar to the way many people don’t remember that Val Kilmer played Batman back in the day.
So when Spidey became part of the bigger universe, fans rejoiced, and after five movies, many felt he had found a permanent home with Disney, which owns Marvel.
Hence the shock when Deadline reported that Disney and Sony couldn’t reach an agreement before their existing contract expired last month.
Under the previous deal, Sony produced the films and received 95 percent of profits. Disney had complete control over the creative process, receiving 5 percent of profits and all merchandising revenue.
The roots of this arrangement go back to the 1990s, when Marvel was facing bankruptcy and started selling its characters to other companies. Sony bought the film rights to Spider-Man for a mere $7 million, and Disney took over Fox Studios, including rights to X-Men.
The ultimate power move that Disney could make right now would be simply to buy Sony. The company has the money (a net worth of $130 billion), but whether Sony is for sale is another question.
Contract negotiations became their own dramatic story in August, when Disney sought to alter the contract, asking for an even 50/50 split, which Sony rejected.
Disney was most likely pushed to make an ultimatum when Spidey’s newest movie, last summer’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” made a billion dollars at the box office. It was the first Spider-Man movie to do this.
I see Disney as foolish, not for suggesting the contract change, but for ending negotiations when its proposal was rejected. Simply put, some money is still better than no money.
The blame for this disaster has been hotly disputed, but I believe all of it falls on Disney’s shoulders.
When news that negotiations had broken down hit the presses, many people were confident that a deal would eventually be struck and felt that worrying was pointless. But these hopes took a blow once Sony cleared the air with a formal series of tweets.
The tweets stated that Sony officials were “disappointed, but respected Disney’s decision,” verbally dumping the blame on Disney.
Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, recently addressed the controversy in an Entertainment Weekly interview, saying that Spider-Man in the MCU was “never meant to last” and that Sony and Disney “told the story we wanted to tell and will always be thankful for that.”
It would be great to pull back the veil and see the inside business that’s behind all this, but as of right now, all we have is disappointment.
Spider-Man is many people’s favorite superhero and having him abruptly leave the MCU, especially after “Far From Home” ended on a cliffhanger, really stings.
The future of Spider-Man is uncertain, but what we do know is that he is one of many characters that can stand the test of time, and he will continue to do so, no matter who creates his next story.