The recent news that Spider-Man will appear in the MCU from this point forward has caused some amount of confusion among the fans; who actually owns the rights, will Andrew Garfield return, is Spider-Man being rebooted yet again and how does this affect future Marvel Studios and Spider-Man spin-off movies. We here at Scified Heroes have been seeking high and low for the answers, and here is the breakdown of the effects and repercussions of this historic deal led by Sony's Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios Kevin Feige. Here's what we've learnt...
Spider-Man No More! Andrew Garfield joins Tobey Maguire as another former web-slinger!
- Marvel Studios does not own the movie production rights to the Spider-Man property; Sony Pictures Entertainment still retain these rights, as well as the merchandising rights for said movies produced.
- This deal allows Marvel use of the character within its MCU movies, and the use of MCU characters within any future movie featuring Spider-Man or related characters.
- Sony's Amy Pascal and Marvel's Kevin Feige will act as producers, to protect both of their respective assets, in any movies featuring Spider-Man or related characters.
- Former producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, viewed by many fans as the reasons why the last three Spider-Man movies were critical failures, have been demoted to executive producers – titles with very little influence on any future movies, with a fat cheque once the move has had its run in the theatres.
- Andrew Garfield will not return. A new, younger Spider-Man will make his debut next year in one of Marvel Studios MCU movies, presumably Captain America: Civil War before making his solo movie debut 2017, most of the details of this new movie are as-of-yet unknown except that it will be a soft reboot, but will NOT be a re-telling of the characters origins.
- Marvel Studios and Sony are looking for a new, younger leading actor to be cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, running favorites for the role are Logan Lerman (Fury) and Dylan O'Brien (Maze-Runner).
- As a result of Spider-Man joining the MCU, some of Marvel Studios planned releases have been delayed – Thor: Ragnarok will now release November 3rd 2017, Black Panther will release July 6th
- 2018, Captain Marvel will release November 2nd 2018 and finally Inhumans will release July 12th 2019. Sony's Spider-Man soft reboot will be released July 28th 2017 (Thor: Ragnarok's former release date). The release dates for Avengers: Infinity War parts I and II remain unchanged.
- Sony are still planning on releasing Venom, Sinister Six and an all female led Spider-Women spin-offs, though these plans are open to change.
Captain America: Civil War just got a whole lot more interesting!
If speculation is right, Captain America: Civil War will see leading stars Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. facing off against each other, each with a protege in tow, but whom will Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther and the as-of-yet uncast Spider-Man side with, taking into account that this summers Avengers: Age of Ultron has shown that Marvel Studios are willing to change “established” dynamics and elements in their movies
With the new deal bringing Spider-Man into the MCU and the high demand for a solo Venom movie, we suspect that Spider-Man's summer 2017 outing will be a big screen adaptation of the 90's Spider-Man: The Animated Series three part episode The Alien Costume (pictured above), in which Spider-Man rescues J. Jonah Jameson's son from a crashed space shuttle on the George Washington Bridge and becomes infected with the alien symbiote.