Peter Parker doesn’t feel so good—again. As initially reported by Deadline on Tuesday, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have reached a stalemate in negotiations to keep partnering for future Spider-Man movies and to continue incorporating Spidey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In plain terms: The Spider-Man character is owned by Sony, but Sony and Marvel Studios previously struck a deal that allowed the MCU to feature Tom Holland’s character as well. The Spidey movies (i.e. Homecoming and Far From Home) were produced by Sony, but as a coproducer Marvel Studios received 5 percent of their first dollar gross.
Without a new agreement in place, Spider-Man will still be featured in his stand-alone movies with Sony—reportedly, Holland is already committed to two more films—but he will no longer cross over into the MCU. That means whatever Marvel’s got cooked up for Peter Parker in Phase 4 of the MCU will have to be put on hold—he can’t show up in another Avengers flick. Sony’s reluctance to agree to a new deal came down to money: Marvel wanted to split the profits 50-50 between the two studios, which is a considerable increase from the parameters of their first agreement. Per Deadline, rather than continue negotiating, Sony did its best Logan Roy impression and told Marvel to fuck off.
Because Sony owns the Spider-Man character, Marvel can’t find itself a replacement Spidey—a new arrangement can either be agreed upon between the two companies, or Peter Parker (or any other Spider-person) won’t step foot in the MCU again. It’ll have big ramifications for both the MCU and the Spider-Man-adjacent universe Sony appears to be building; in addition to Spider-Man, Sony has a Venom sequel in the works, along with a Morbius flick starring Jared Leto. Given that Far From Home was Sony’s highest-grossing film to date, the company clearly feels confident that it’s found its footing with this Spider-Man—to say nothing of the fact that the studio also put together last year’s stellar, Oscar-winning animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Of course, Sony’s recent success with Spidey brand does come with a bit of Marvel context: The Holland iteration of the character was the first one to involve Marvel Studios, and particularly Marvel president Kevin Feige. Before Feige and Marvel got into the mix, Sony dropped two underwhelming Spidey films starring Andrew Garfield, which, in the most unforgivable sin of all, deigned to let Paul Giamatti toss out a caricatured Russian accent as Rhino in a setup for a third Garfield movie that never materialized. In a statement to Deadline, Sony said Feige’s “many new responsibilities”—hinting at Disney’s recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox, which means the X-Men and Fantastic Four can be brought into the MCU fold—“do not allow time for him to work on IP they do not own.”
It’s unclear just how much Feige influenced this version of Spider-Man—or whether his main prerogative was simply ensuring Holland’s character maintained some preestablished MCU corporate synergy. Still, Feige, by virtue of producing all of the highly lucrative MCU movies, is an undeniably accomplished executive—and also “lent an unofficial hand” with Venom, which went on to gross more than $850 million at the box office. But unless Feige explicitly told Tom Hardy to go off like he’s Marlon Brando fighting off a tapeworm after ingesting a ton of Quaaludes, well, Venom is a masterpiece of its star’s own creation.
The prospect of Holland’s endearing portrayal of Parker facing off against Hardy’s sweaty reporter with a parasite that tells him to eat human brains is irresistible. If Venom 2 already feels like the movie event of our lifetime—fact-check: With Andy Serkis directing, it is—then a Spidey-Venom crossover is the type of thing that will transcend our complicated existence on this mortal plane. If it happens, it’s gonna slap so hard.
(Just imagine: Eddie Brock is perspiring through the streets of San Francisco, and then Venom is like, “EDDIE! THAT HIGH SCHOOL BOYYYYYYYYY. HE LOOKS LIKE A LOSER, LIKE US. THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT HIM THAT’S TINGLING. GO TALK TO HIM, EDDIE.” And then Eddie will be like, “Urm, uh, [unintelligible sounds] you see, ah, we can’t just go talk to a random kid like that. People are gonna think I’m some kinda pedophile. Bwahhh, tingling?” And then Venom’s gonna be like, “BUT WE EAT PEDOPHILES, EDDIEEEEEEE!” And then this movie will win 15 Oscars at the 2023 Academy Awards, narrowly defeating Aquaman 2 and Avatar 3 and [insert milquetoast Timothée Chalamet biopic here].)
The biggest drawback to future developments with Holland’s Spider-Man—aside from the obvious and aforementioned lack of future Avengers content with him in it—is that additional MCU characters won’t be able to feature in his stand-alone films, either. Holland is indisputably the star of his own show, but both Homecoming and Far From Home were bolstered by MCU mainstays, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, in particular. Keeping Parker completely separate from all things pertaining to the MCU might be inescapably awkward—depending not just on the parameters established by the rival studios, but the fact that Parker is supposed to be Stark’s heir apparent in the MCU narrative. (It would also be weird, for instance, if dudes like Thanos and Tony Stark are never referenced again just so Peter Parker can roll around in Venom’s symbiote goo.)
For the time being, all of this remains speculative—and probably will for some time. After all, the third Spider-Man movie doesn’t have a release date, and when Marvel unveiled its extensive Phase 4 plans at Comic-Con earlier this year, there was no fifth Avengers movie on the docket, either. (Spider-Man’s own exclusion from the presentation is notable, but could also be because, again, he’s technically a Sony character and they might’ve still been trying to put together a new arrangement.) Plus, to offer a sliver of hope: A source told Variety that a deal between the two studios “might still be reached.”
Regardless, this much is clear: The MCU won’t be the same without Spider-Man—the same way his stand-alone movies won’t be the same without the MCU. How much this affects both cinematic universes remains to be seen, but given the way fans of Spidey and the MCU have already reacted to the news online, the two studios’ ultimately coming to an agreement might feel like as big a victory as Earth’s mightiest heroes undoing Thanos’s snapture.
