Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Spider-Man will no longer appear in MCU films and I think this decision won't really matter all that much.

So, news dropped yesterday that Sony will no longer be sharing Spider-Man with Marvel. I wasn't expecting this news, but it makes sense given that Far From Home grossed over a billion dollars and is due to take down Captain Marvel on its re-release (to show four minutes of extra footage) this weekend. I guess they didn't even consider Marvel's offer, which was to pay for 50% of everything going forward, and Sony pretty much just told Disney to stick it where the sun don't shine (maybe a little more polite than that). I think Kevin Feige and others at Marvel made some really great decisions in casting Tom Holland and in crafting the last two Spider-Man films (I feel like the character is on track better than he ever was before), and Sony definitely now has a good blueprint to create a successful Spider-Man film.

I remember the buzz of having Spider-Man join the MCU before Captain America: Civil War. I hadn't read that particular comic book, but a lot of the nerds I talk to and respect told me that Spider-Man was pretty crucial to the storyline. Please note that these are the same nerds who also stood up for Adam Warlock being crucial to the Infinity War storyline (which I had read and was familiar with), yet that character was completely written out of Infinity War and Endgame and no one noticed because the storyline didn't follow the books, yet was still quite good.

So knowing all of this...and then having watched Captain America: Civil War...I'm still not certain that Spider-Man was necessary at all. I don't think he was necessary for Infinity War or Endgame either. Don't get me wrong...I like that character and I think that he was a great inclusion and lightened the mood in several spots, but Spider-Man was never essential to Captain America: Civil War or any of the others he was in. I mean...what did Spider-Man even do? Take away Captain America's shield? Give Iron-Man someone to mentor and miss after the snapture? Help fight Thanos on Titan (which they ended up losing anyway)? All of those things could have happened through another character, easy. The only thing he was really good for was having a teenager to rope other teenagers into wanting to see the film (because they had a character that represented them).

Anyway, I guess my point to all of this is that Spider-Man going back to Sony seems like a good move at this point. It means Tom Holland will probably appear in the next Venom movie and that his appearances in future Avengers films will depend on Disney showing up with a truck load of cash, which they probably won't do because...why? I think I prefer the smaller plotlines anyway...where Spider-Man faces off against one of his rogues' gallery villains and they expand the world just a wee bit by exploring various characters Peter Parker interacts with. I will miss Happy Hogan, but I'm sure they'll have fun with the Aunt May character.

7 comments:

  1. I think you're underestimating the draw of the MCU and how fans will react to having Spidey pulled from it. If you look at the Garfield Spider-Man movies, I think you're seeing the best Sony has to offer with the character, and those didn't go over very well. Without Marvel's involvement, you won't see another billion dollar Spider-Man film.

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  2. It's an interesting move. They better be prepared to roll out some stellar scripts for him. I thought the first Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield was great but then they dropped the ball with the second one.

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  3. Are they keeping Holland? In Civil War I think they transferred some of the Spider-Man story to Black Widow and Black Panther, probably because they didn't know they would have Spidey until late into the process.

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  4. There are so many possible combination of characters Marvel could likely keep inventing stories/movies for well beyond my lifetime. I did catch a little of the Holland Spiderman on TV and liked him and the humor.

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  5. Business people making story decisions. Yeah, that'll go over well.

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  6. Too bad they couldn't work out a deal. Spiderman was at his best with the Avengers. Previous films weren't that great for me. Sony doesn't have that Marvel touch.

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  7. I love that people seem to have forgotten that Sony had two huge, huge successes with Spider-Man before the MCU ever existed. It just so happened that just a year before(!!), they made a third one that didn't go over as well. The second one was for years touted as the best superhero movie ever made.

    But how can Sony possibly do Spider-Man without Disney???

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