There were a lot of concerned Spider-Man fans last year when the news came out of the blue that Sony had decided to end their working relationship with Marvel Studios over the iconic web-slinger, with the announcement sending shockwaves throughout the industry so soon after the MCU’s Far From Home became the highest-grossing Spidey flick ever made.
As is the case with most things in Hollywood, the disagreements were reported to be financial, with the success of Marvel’s Spider-Man movies seemingly behind Sony’s decision to withdraw from the deal, as the studio was keen to bring the character back under their umbrella in order to play a key role in their own comic book franchise, which got off to a great start with Venom’s $850 million box office haul.
Petitions were launched, Tom Holland went hiking with Robert Downey Jr. and even had a drunken phone-call with Disney boss Bob Iger. Eventually, it was announced that Spider-Man would remain part of the MCU for the foreseeable future, with a third solo adventure swiftly announced, along with the news that the wall-crawler was also contractually obligated to appear in the Sony-verse at some stage.
With Sony’s Marvel universe set to grow even larger with Morbius and Venom 2 on the horizon, as well as the reveal of Michael Keaton’s Vulture that seems to hint that the Sinister Six is definitely in the works, some fans are still worried that Spider-Man could be withdrawn from the MCU at any minute should Sony decide that he’s better off without the rest of the Avengers.
However, in a recent interview, both Disney co-Chairman Alan Horn and Sony chief Tom Rothman indicated that the two rival studios would continue working on Spider-Man movies for a while yet, with Horn admitting that the fans played a huge part in re-negotiating the deal.
“The fanbase, which is important to all of us, seemed to really respond to what Tom Holland and the Spider-Man crew had done before. And they like it. They like the fact that the MCU and Kevin Feige were involved. And we heard feedback out there that suggested joining forces once again was probably a really good idea.”
Rothman went one step further than his counterpart from the Mouse House, saying that he hoped the agreement would continue for a while longer after it turned out to be of huge benefit for all parties involved.
“I hope so. I think this was a classic win-win-win. I think it was a win for Sony. I think it was a win for Disney. I think it was a win for fans and moviegoers. The only thing I would say is that news cycles and the rhythm of negotiations don’t necessarily overlap… I think we would have gotten there and the news got ahead of some things.”
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