Spider-Man Back In Marvel Cinematic Universe After Sony, Marvel Reach New Deal – Forbes, Forbes.com

today’s news comes after the studios sparred over who was responsible for negotiations breaking down and resulting in initial announcements that spider-man would no longer>

It seemed inevitable because it was. Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures announced this morning that Spider-Man will return to the MCU, after the studios reached a new deal to continue their partnership. Fans and investors around the world will rejoice at the news, as it ensures billion dollar business for the wall-crawler for years to come.

Today’s news comes after the studios sparred over who was responsible for negotiations breaking down and resulting in initial announcements that Spider-Man would no longer appear in the MCU, and future Spider-Man sequels would not include crossover with Marvel’s shared world of superheroes.

The new deal sees Marvel Studios producing the next installment of Spidey’s cinematic franchise, with Kevin Feige taking a lead role in production. Spider-Man will also appear in other MCU movies going forward, as he has previously. The third film in the modern series releases July 16, 2021.

Feige made an interesting remark during today’s announcement, and it’s hard to say whether it’s a throw-away line or a hint at something more substantive to come. When commenting on his pleasure at reaching a new deal with Sony, Feige said, “[A]s Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.”

Does that imply Sony’s planned series of connected Spider-Man spinoffs will somehow wind up merged into the MCU, possibly by having the spinoff characters – notably, Venom – appear in the solo Spider-Man movies? Does it mean Marvel is offering (again) to coproduce the spinoff films as well, even if they’re kept separate from the main Spider-Man series? Is it just a friendly endorsement of Sony’s other unrelated spinoffs?

My guess is, part of making the new deal happen included Marvel’s (and Feige’s) involvement in Sony’s spinoffs, and some plan to allow the MCU version of Spider-Man to cross over into those spinoffs – or for spinoff characters to appear in the solo Spidey releases.

Another option, which would definitely count as a welcome “surprise” for many people, would bean idea I previously suggested back in June. Marvel could have convinced Sony that the ideal scenario is not to use the Peter Parker iteration of Spidey for the planned “spider-verse” of spinoffs, but instead to use Miles Morales, thus giving Sony not one but TWO Spider-Man solo franchises – one within the MCU, and one as part of a separate shared “spider-verse.”

Down the road, such a separate second Spider-Man and his collection of shared-world spinoff characters could appear in a crossover event alongside the MCU Peter Parker version of the character, and perhaps some other MCU heroes as well. A multiverse setup of this sort would pay off huge – imagine a story starting in the Peter Parker MCU Spider-Man movies, continuing in a Miles Morales Spider-Man movie, and then culminating in a big crossover Avengers event with various multiverse characters.

Even lacking such an MCU-Spider-verse crossover event, the idea of Sony cultivating two different Spider-Man franchises within two different shared superhero worlds is pretty enticing, and any desire to just have Peter Parker’s MCU incarnation appear in Venom and other spinoffs should be dwarfed by the appeal of multiple Spider-Man franchises and playing in two different shared universes. Add in the dangled carrot of possible future MCU crossover events, and it’s hard to imagine Sony turning it down.

Whatever comes to pass, though, the big news today is that Spider-Man is back in the MCU – and truth be told, he never really left. It was always a game of brinksmanship, with too much money on the table and too much future potential for both sides to walk away forever. I said before that Spider-Man returning to the MCU was inevitable, because it was. The only question was whether the right people would see that “sooner” rather than “later” had the most financial benefits for all involved. Luckily, that’s precisely what happened, and it’s reason for everyone to be mindful next time a brinksmanship scenario of this sort plays out.