During an interview to promote the forthcoming Spider-Man Homecoming earlier this week former Sony Pictures Entertainment chairperson Amy Pascal claimed that Sonys planned Venom movie will be a part of the MCU via its connection to the new Spider-Verse; a statement contrary to that of an earlier statement from Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige who claimed his studio had no plans to incorporate Venom into the MCU. Feige, who was sat next to Pascal during the interview struggled to hide his shock at the announcement. The monumental ball drop was first reported by Twitter page Comic Fade before being taken down, likely at the request of Marvel Studios, but not before the news had spread.
Unable to contain Pascals "Faux Pas" Marvel Studios president Feige (speaking to JoBlo.com via John Campea) has clarified some details of his studio's collaborative deal with Sony Pictures...
"Right now, Spidey is in the MCU and it's just Spidey. Civil War, Homecoming, we've already shot a lot of Tom Holland's scenes in the upcoming Avengers films, and we're just starting to solidify our plans for Homecoming 2 - we won't call it that, whatever it is - which is exciting because it'll be the first MCU movie after untitled Avengers in 2019. It'll be the way Civil War informed everything in Homecoming, those movies will launch him off into a very new cinematic universe at that point. Those five movies are what we're focusing on."
Including his appearances in Captain America: Civil War and the forthcoming Spider-Man Homecoming Tom Holland's Spider-Man is scheduled to appear in the Avengers 3 and 4 and the as-of-yet untitled sequel to Spider-Man Homecoming. Although Sony Pictures' contract with young British star Holland extends to a second sequel to Homecoming it will not be produced by Marvel Studios under the current deal unless Marvel Studios renew or extend their part of the deal.
Considering that Pascal was fired from her position as Sony Pictures' chairperson for mismanagement (and claims of sexism and racism) after the fallout of the Sony Hacking scandal, her decision to greenlight Paul Feig's all-female Ghostbusters reboot instead of honoring her position as the producer of the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3, and her previous mismanagement of the Spider-Man property, this latest blunder will likely weigh heavily on Kevin Feige's plans for Spider-Man beyond Homecoming 2.
With Sony Pictures poor performance at the box office in recent years, the troubled studio is quickly approaching breaking point, which could see the studio sell its production and distribution rights (to Spider-Man and other intellectual properties) or even its subsidiary studios such as Columbia and Tri-Star Pictures. Another possibility is that Feige, together with Disney president Bob Iger could just purchase the rights to Spider-Man (and all other Marvel character rights not held by Marvel Studios), with Feige and his studio having already shown how lucrative the MCU is to the company, and thus capable of recuperating the purchase cost.
