Last year’s Sony email hack revealed not only that Marvel Entertainment and Sony were discussing letting Spider-Man play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also that those talks had allegedly broken down before they could reach an agreement. However, Marvel has just confirmed that they will indeed be producing the next installment of the Spider-Man franchise, out in 2017. But we’ll be seeing Spidey even before that!
This “new Spider-Man” will appear in an MCU film—most likely Captain America: Civil War, out May 6, 2016. That reintroduction will lead into Sony’s next Spider-Man installment, which will be co-produced by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Sony’s Amy Pascal, to be released on July 28, 2017.
Matching the plan outlined in the hacked emails, Sony will continue to have creative and financial control over Spidey, but now they’re working with Marvel to integrate the universes. Feige expressed his excitement in the press release:
Marvel’s involvement will hopefully deliver the creative continuity and authenticity that fans demand from the MCU. I am equally excited for the opportunity to have Spider-Man appear in the MCU, something which both we at Marvel, and fans alike, have been looking forward to for years.
Of course Spider-Man has to appear in the Civil War adaptation—and we’re assuming that it’s still Peter Parker who will be taking sides in the superhero registration debate, or a similar theme the movie will address. However, TheWrap claims that The Amazing Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield is being recast. Some have suggested that to avoid awkward recasting, Sony and Marvel should replace Peter Parker with Miles Morales.
TheWrap also reports that fitting a Spider-Man movie into Marvel’s Phase 3 will push back several movies’ release dates:
- Thor: Ragnarok will move from the July 28 slot to November 3, 2017
- Black Panther, which originally had November 3, will now come out on July 6, 2018
- Captain Marvel moves from July 6 to November 2, 2018
- Inhumans moves from November 2 to July 12, 2019
I’ve been suspecting for some time that Sony, “Marvel” generally to whatever extent people are still talking to each other, etc. was always planning to get rid of Peter Parker. It was suspicious when Andrew Garfield signed only two movie contracts. And. . .if it was done right, then the cinematic Marvelverse could up the dramatic stakes by killing a major character who stays dead, and ALSO introduce a mixed-race superhero in a natural way that didn’t feel like tokenism. Plus, maybe we’ve just had enough of Peter Parker on screen for this generation.
Hopefully this will result in a well done Peter who isn’t just a reboot. There is a lot more to Spiderman than the origin.
Of course, Marvel has really messed up Spiderman all on their own in the past few years–hopefully they won’t pay any attention to any of that.
Bringing in Miles Morales would be cool, but it sounds pretty unlikely to me. Marvel’s been trying so hard to get its trademark character back under its control that I doubt they’d settle for anything other than the original, most famous incarnation.
If it’s true that we’re losing Garfield (either to a recasting of Peter or a replacement with Miles), I’d be disappointed. ASM2 had plenty of flaws, but its depiction of Spider-Man as a character was not one of them. It was the most perfect screen portrayal of Spidey we’ve ever seen, far better than the Raimi films managed. I hate to see that version of Spidey shut down just when they finally got him right. I’d rather see him continued with better scripts, and with his continuity integrated into the MCU. And while we’re at it, do some kind of Spider-Verse crossover event and bring Emma Stone back as Spider-Gwen.
Heck, they could do a Spider-Verse movie starring Tobey Maguire Spidey, Andrew Garfield Spidey, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, and the MCU Peter Parker (if any). Bonus points for including Nicholas Hammond and Shinji Toudou (stars of the American and Japanese live-action shows from the ’70s) and Reeve Carney (star of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark).
@3, can there be extra multiplier bonus points if it’s also got Jim Sturgess (AKA Almost Starred In Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark)? Did anyone else on this site read Song of Spider-Man? If not, please do; so disappointed that it was just barely released at the end of 2013 so I can’t nominate for a Best Related Work Hugo.
@@.-@: Extra points if they find roles for the voices of the animated Spideys: Paul Soles (who already appeared in the MCU’s The Incredible Hulk, since he also played Banner in the ’60s), Ted Schwartz, Dan Gilvezan, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Rino Romano, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Keaton, and Drake Bell. Not to mention The Electric Company‘s Spidey, Danny Seagren.
If this doesn’t end up with Miles Morales hanging out with Jess and Kate in Avengers Tower, then I don’t care.
The only thing I don’t like about this is seeing Black Panther pushed back so far into the next year, and to a lesser degree, the Inhumans as well. Oh well, not like they’d ever roll these movies out with just 3 month gaps anyway.
@5. And a singing dance-off for Carney, Sturgess and NPH. HAHAHA.
Interesting, but is Marvel putting way too much on the plate? I don’t even mean from a quality perspective, but from a fan’s ability to consume perspective. Frankly, I am expecting a bit of fatigue in the market.
@9 I don’t believe it’s too much. I think the rescheduling of planned movies demonstrates that Marvel’s aware of the danger of oversaturating the market, and two blockbusters a year seems to be working well.
@10 While I agree with your point, just to note the other movies didn’t change position. There are three a year starting in 2017: 2017 is Guardians 2, Spidey, and Thor 3, and 2018 will be Infinity War Part1 (didn’t shift its date), Black Panther and Captain Marvel.
The kind of funny thing about this is that it bumps Inhumans to four years from now, after Infinity War Part 2. Which also means we could see several seasons worth of Inhumans stuff on Agents of SHIELD, before their movie comes out.
@11: Well, we’d still have had a similar number of Marvel movies per year if Sony had continued to make them independently. The only real difference is that the Spider-Man movies Sony makes will be in continuity with the MCU and will cross over with them.
Which is really very interesting, the more I think about it. Marvel hasn’t really gotten Spidey back so much as subcontracted that corner of the MCU out to Sony. Which is really the only way it ever could’ve happened, given that it’s Sony’s most profitable franchise and they’d never have given it up. And in exchange, Sony gets the benefit of Marvel Studios’ nigh-infallible creative team helping them develop the new films, and the benefit of riding on the coattails of the MCU and drawing on its pool of characters and concepts. That’s got to be a step up from their desperate efforts to create a franchise out of Spidey and his villains. This is a win for both studios, but I think Sony benefits more.
Anyway, a question for the commenters: what MCU characters would you most like to see Spidey interact with? I guess Iron Man is the top choice; he and Peter have an established relationship in the comics, and it’d be fun to see Downey have a snark-off with whoever they get as the new Spidey. And there have been some noteworthy Spidey-Hulk clashes over the years. Adding upcoming characters, I seem to recall Captain Marvel (Carol) and Spidey having a flirtatious thing going on a couple of years back in the comics, and I’ve seen a number of Spidey/Dr. Strange stories (after all, they’re both Ditko co-creations).
It’s a shame Fox isn’t in on this crossover party, since Spidey’s always been closely linked with the Fantastic Four. Maybe if the new FF movie doesn’t perform to Fox’s expectations, they’ll follow Sony’s lead and strike a co-production deal of their own with Marvel. (Though I think the X-Men should stay in their own well-established continuity.)
Ah, not the beginning of the end of the superhero movie craze but maybe this is the end of the beginning. Crossovers will be all the rage for awhile, and a lot of them will hopefully be worth watching. Then they’ll drag the bottom, trying to drum up interest in the most obscure comic titles. Enjoy it while it lasts, kids.
After reading this
ht tp://antisf.com/the-stories/stories-1-11/does-whatever
I find myself wondering if Marvell will ever come clean and discuss the species of spider that bit Peter Parker: was it a Black Widow, a Funnel Web, or some other such species? And what does Spiderman do once he’s caught the crims like flies and they resist arrest? I can imagine crime-fighting would be a very strenuous and hungry-making business: I doubt the police department of his city would bother if he quietly ate a crim here and there …
These are important questions, and Marvell doesn’t appear to have noticed: or perhaps the people that did ask such question were visited by Spiderman and
liquifiedliquidated