Negotiations between Marvel and Sony for the rights to the Spider-Man movies may not be as dead as we originally thought. According to the Latino Review, Marvel is still very much in pursuit of the rights to Spidey on the big screen, and they want to do so with a clean slate. No Sam Rami trilogy, no Emma Stone, and no Andrew Garfield.
Where the deal stands now if it gets completed is a 60/40 split between the two companies, with Sony handling distribution of the films, and Marvel handling the creative decisions. Anyone who has seen the terribly disappointing The Amazing Spider-Man films would probably agree that this would be a good move for the character of Spider-Man, if not for Sony. Everyone from top to bottom seems to agree that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was either rushed, or not that great. Even star Andrew Garfield felt the film didn’t live up to expectations and ended up being chopped apart to the point that the story lost a lot of its meaning.
Similar to what they did with Star Wars and anything not related to the six movies, Disney wants to take the nuclear option with Spider-Man canon. If the deal goes through and Disney gets what they want for their beloved Marvel hero, they would start the cinematic franchise over fresh. This means that the Sam Rami trilogy is no longer canon, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2 are no longer canon, and the part of Peter Parker would be re-cast away from Andrew Garfield. This would also mean that the plans Sony has for upcoming Spider-Man films, an Aunt May origin story and a female Spider-Man, would no longer be happening. In general, Marvel has begun to step away from origin stories with all their main Avengers stars having had their own origins revealed, and even upcoming films like Doctor Strange are rumored to start after the hero is already established.
Marvel would also reportedly take the Spider-Man films away from their current “romance first” mentality and instead make them about the difficulties of being a teenager with superpowers with a romantic side-story.
Rumors originally pointed to Spider-Man potentially making an appearance in Captain America: Civil War, but the chances of that now appear slim to none as a script has reportedly been “nailed down.” That’s not to say Spider-Man could not play a pivotal role in the future internal war of The Avengers, however. As any comic book reading friend will loudly remind you whenever you mention the civil war story line in Marvel’s cinematic universe, Spider-Man (and let’s be fair, a lot of other heroes that Marvel doesn’t own movie rights to) plays a huge part in the conflict during the intense series of events in the comics.
As generally bad as they are, the The Amazing Spider-Man movies still gross a tremendous amount of money – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 alone brought in $709 million globally, blowing past their $200 budget. So the films still make money hand-over-fist for Sony. Whether they feel that they can get more money from Disney and Marvel running the creative aspects of the films while they bring in 40% of the revenue, or Marvel is sweetening the pot for them to give the license back, we can only hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Last Updated on November 28, 2018.
