Marvel’s announcement that it is partnering with Sony to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe almost broke the Internet. However, due to the timing of the press release, we knew that most details wouldn’t be released until the light of day. Now that it is almost 24-hours later, what do we know, what do we think we know and what do we think about what we know?
Marvel’s Phase III will be shifting:
This was pretty much a no brainer, since Thor: Ragnarok was set to come out on the same day as was announced for the new Spider-Man film–July 28, 2017–so the release dates of most of Marvel’s offerings from then on will be shifting.
Here are the new dates:
- Thor: Ragnarok has moved to Nov. 3, 2017.
- Black Panther has moved to July 6, 2018.
- Captain Marvel has moved to Nov. 2, 2018.
- Inhumans has moved to July 12, 2019.
Avengers: The Infinity War Parts I and II with keep the release dates they already have. This puts the brand new franchises smack dab in the middle of the two installments. A great place to be if they provide more elements of the story for hungry fans.
Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb are out:
Variety is reporting that Marvel and Sony will be going with a teenage Spider-Man, which means that the 31-year-old Andrew Garfield, who was getting a little long in the tooth to play even the college-aged Peter Parker, finds that his services are no longer needed. The Hollywood Reporter adds that director Marc Webb’s involvement with the franchise is now at an end.
I have to join my fellow journalist Carol Pinchefsky in mourning the passing of the Andrew Garfield era. Garfield seemed like a genuine fan of Spider-Man, and he had little to do with the failing of The Amazing Spider-Man reboot. He did present an interesting portrayal of Peter Parker, more as a social outcast than a stereotypical nerd, and what he brought to the roll was shines through as a high point of the reboot.
Webb, well, I’m not so sad to see go. More of the blame for the failings should fall to his feet. It is hard to tell who really was responsible for the decay of Sony’s run at doing Spider-man films. but I’m sure Webb’s directing played a part in it. Here is where a fresh start is really needed.
If we need a villain, may we suggest Avi Arad?
Multiple reports state that producer Arad, along with producer Matt Tolmach, have been “demoted” to the title of Executive Producer, essentially a honorary title with no real power of control.
Let me begin by saying that without Avi Arad, there would not likely be any Marvel Comics, let alone Marvel Comics movies. He helped get the comic book company out of bankruptcy and facilitated their company’s rise to Hollywood respectability.
However, he is also a hands-on producer in the worst sense of the word. His interfering with Sam Raimi during Spider-Man 3 is legendary, essentially forcing the director to shoe horn Venom into the film against Raimi’s wishes. When Spider-Man 4 began shaping up to be a similar kind of battle, Raimi bailed. The clown-car-of-villains The Amazing Spider-Man 2 became has the strong odor of Arad’s meddling. And the inclusion of all those villains at the expense of plot and characterization is one of the reasons why that film failed.
If Arad was responsible for all that, he will not be missed all that much.
Sinister Six, Venom and Female Spin-off not dead, only resting:
One of the amazing things about this whole thing is that it has storied financial media such as the Wall Street Journal talking about comic books. Unfortunately, the web version of that article is behind a paywall, but, fortunately, Comic Book Resources and Bleeding Cool have read the article for us.
One of the tidbits to come out of that is the previously planned Spidey shared universe films, Sinister Six, Venom and an as-yet-unnamed female focued spin-off are still in development, although Sinister Six will be delayed and will not be hitting its November 11, 2016 release date.
Variety reports that these spin-offs will not have the creative influence of Kevin Feige, who will be consigned to being in control of Spidey’s films and MCU appearances. That means these dicey ideas have not gotten any less dicey.
Spider-Man will appear in Captain America: Civil War:
The above WSJ article also cites sources who say that Spidey will be appearing–as long rumored and discussed in the Sony Hack e-mails–in Captain America: Civil War. Dan Wickline at Bleeding Cool breaks it down for us logically, showing only that film could only be the crossover film by means of elimination:
This was the obvious choice as the original press release said Spider-Man would appear in a Marvel movie prior to the release of the next solo Spider-Man movie on July 28th, 2017. The only Marvel films that would work for that were the already completed Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man… so those are a no. The sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy… Spidey in space is a no. Doctor Strange… doubt they’d put him in another characters debut. So that left only Civil War.
Sounds good to me.
No money changed hands during the deal:
Sony paid nothing for the right to have Spidey in Marvel films. Marvel paid nothing to rent Spider-Man from Sony. Each keeps the grosses from its individual films.
This could be a cash waterfall for Sony.
Hugh Jackman was excited to hear the news, hopeful a similar arrangement can be met between Marvel and Fox:
Screen Crush had the distinct pleasure of breaking the news of the Sony/Marvel deal to Hugh Jackman during a press appearance to promote his latest film, Chappie.
Jackman has always been an advocate for having Wolverine crossing over with the MCU. However, the relationship between Fox and Marvel isn’t quite as polite as the one between Sony and Marvel. Jackman is a remarkably young looking 46, but it’s not likely that a similar deal will be made before, as Jackman says, he gets too old to play Wolverine.
Via:
Smart move by Sony; Fox should be so smart. Having Wolverine in the Avengers would only help the franchise…
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That whole thing about Feige not having say on the Sinister Six and Venom flicks makes me..nervous.
Me too.