The entertainment industry seems to be absolutely booming with
blockbuster films within the past few years, and the company we mostly
know responsible for churning out hit after hit is Disney, who seems
to have almost everything these days, with their top two highest
grossing franchises being the Star Wars films, and also the cash cow
that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU for short.
Earlier this year, they released several Marvel movies, with them
doing quite well, like Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and
Spider-Man: Far From Home. The MCU started all the way back in 2008
with the first film in the franchise being John Favreau's cult classic
superhero movie Iron Man, which starred Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark
AKA Iron Man, and this film got RDJ from that crackhead who had no
hope of making it in Hollywood, to the real life and fictional
millionaire playboy philanthropist we all know and love 3,000 today.
Far From Home is the latest addition to the MCU, ending phase 3, and
apparently now the hopes and dreams of Peter Parker seeing his fellow
Avengers again. But how did it get to this, and where did the MCU
start, and how did it end up without Spiderman, gaining him, then
losing him? Well, that's what I'm about to explain.
In the past decade, the MCU has included more heroes and teamed them
up in great movies like the Avengers, and it seems like so many of the
stars we know and love have been in the MCU at some point or another.
That's why after Iron Man's post credits scene with Samuel L Jackson's
Nick Fury and then 2008's The Incredible Hulk, who starred notorious
control freak/beloved actor Edward Norton in addition to having a Tony
Stark cameo, fans had hope of seeing a team up film, which we got in
2012 with The Avengers, and we were waiting patiently for everyone's
favourite web head join his fellow Marvel heroes in the MCU. During
Iron Man 2, a young boy in an Iron Man Costume is saved from a robot
gone rogue at a convention by Tony Stark, and fans had theorized that
the little boy dressed as Iron Man was actually a young Peter Parker,
and the idea was something that had us waiting in anticipation.
So in 2016 during Captain America: Civil War, Disney had finally made
our dreams come true by bringing Spider-Man into the MCU, this time
being played by British actor tom Holland, who replaced Andrew
Garfield after Sony's canceled Amazing Spider-Man film series.
The problem with the MCU though is that Disney doesn't have the rights
to make movies with all Marvel comic book characters. Remember the
Incredible Hulk with Ed Norton that I mentioned before? Well that was
actually co-financed by Universal, who have the distribution rights
for any Hulk solo films, which is why after that box office bomb,
Disney hasn't made another Hulk movie since then. Up until recently,
they also couldn't have the X-Men or Fantastic Four because 20th
Century Fox owned those, the only two exceptions being Quicksilver and
Scarlet Witch, who were featured in Avengers: Age of Ultron, as Disney
bought the rights to have them appear, but the term “mutant” wasn’t
used when referring to the backstories of the characters, and their
backstories were altered due to legal reasons. Even Deadpool wasn't
able to be in there, although Josh Brolin played both the villain
Cable in Deadpool 2 and the purple stone loving genocidal brute Thanos
in the MCU, and Deadpool joked about this in the movie.
As for Spidey, Sony owns the film rights to the characters from
Spider-Man, which is why 2018's Venom wasn't a part of the MCU, and
was its own standalone film. Spider-Man film rights were acquired by
Sony in the 1990's when Marvel was on the verge of bankruptcy, so they
sold the film rights to Sony, who produced two separate depictions of
the character prior to them merging with Disney to put him in the MCU.
The first and only Spider-Man trilogy produced by Sony debuted in
2002, starring pre-dance career disaster Tobey Maguire. Along with
him, their was Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin AKA Norman Osborn, and
featured other notable stars like James Franco as Harry Osborn and JK
Simmons in the iconic role of J Jonah Jameson, who I would love to see
my boss dress as for Halloween while yelling at me “DAMN IT PARKER I
WANT PICTURES OF SPIDER-MAN!”
Spider-Man 3 tanked and so did Tobey Maguire's career in just one
scene with James Brown and the worst dance sequence in cinema history,
where Peter literally wears a black suit and dances like John Travolta
Saturday Night Fever style down a street. After that, Sony made more
theatrical abominations which were their ironically named Amazing
Spider-Man series, which spawned only two films before being cancelled
in favour of him being placed in the MCU. According to most fans, Sony
hasn't got a damn clue what they're doing.
After the box office shattering records produced by Avengers: Endgame,
which managed to surpass James Cameron's movies Titanic and Avatar,
fans were sad to say goodbye to Tony Stark, as RDJ was ending his
contract with Disney, but it seemed like Peter Parker was hyped up to
be his successor, and we got a more in depth look at this in
Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is the follow up for Avengers:
Endgame. In far From Home, Peter goes on a class trip to Europe, only
for strange creatures made of fire, water, storms, and rocks called
The Elementals, to come along and crash his summer vacation, but he
has help fighting them thanks to a new dimension hopping hero named
Quentin Beck AKA Mysterio, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, and some new
sunglasses called “EDITH” (which stand for Even Dead I’m The Hero)
from Tony Stark that control a lot of tech, including some dangerous
drones that Peter comes very close to accidentally committing a murder
with.
We got some Easter eggs and the film left on a cliff hanger, as J
Jonah Jameson showed footage of Mysterio seemingly dying after a huge
battle in London England, and Mysterio name drops the identity of
Spidey in the video, and it was just before the film left theatres
that Disney and Sony failed to reach an agreement on how to split the
earnings of the films. Far From Home had become Sony's highest
grossing film of all time, surpassing the James Bond movie Skyfall.
Within a day people were going nuts about the news that Sony was
pulling the character from the MCU, and even big stars reacted to
this. Jeremy Renner who plays Hawkeye in the MCU asked for Sony to
return the bug bitten teen to his home in the MCU via twitter. Fans
even took to the twitter of Ryan Reynolds, who stars as the Merc with
a Mouth, AKA Deadpool, replying to questions of whether a Deadpool
Spider-Man team up is possible, to which he replied:
“There already is one, but you can only see it in my heart.”
It’d seem that what it all boils down to is money and a lack of
communication and negotiating, with greed and egos getting in the way
of both studios ability to come to an agreement. Spider-Man: Far From
Home did indeed earn over $1,000,000,000 at the box office and also
became the highest grossing Spider-Man film of all time, but this is
largely in part to the MCU, and characters like Tony Stark, who were
paired up in the films with him and also allowed for his storyline to
be intertwined with the MCU timeline that is responsible for this.
Sony seems to think that much to the chagrin of fans and the
obviousness of their past failures that despite all that and with how
well Venom did as a standalone film, that they can sill capitalize on
the success and that they think they can achieve with the character of
Spider-Man. All characters introduced in Spider-Man: Homecoming are
now a part of Sony’s Venom-verse, as well as Peter Parker and Aunt May
who made there debut in Captain America: Civil War.
Even though Sony has had big stars in there Spider-Man and spinoff
films, like James Franco, JK Simmons, Kirsten Dunst, Andrew Garfield,
Jamie Foxx, Denis Leary, Paul Giamatti, and Alfred Molina, it doesn’t
stop their movies from sucking. It seems that perhaps Sony just needs
another kick to the face to realize that the fans want what they want,
and if they don’t try and work things out, they may ultimately fail
with the character like they did before. Without the MCU, it seems the
web crawling teen is screwed. Or so it would seem, as there is a
loophole.
While Sony indeed owns the film rights, Marvel is still allowed to
make and distribute Spider-Man TV shows and have him appear in
anything under 40 minutes in length without risking any legal issues
with Sony. The new streaming service Disney+ is set to launch in
November of this year, just barely 6 or 7 weeks away, and they do plan
on making series like there “What If?” which showcases alternate
realities of the universe that their characters share. It was
confirmed at least two episodes will center around the two Spider-Man
films in the MCU, so potentially what they could do is make a live
action series starring current Spider-Man Tom Holland, keeping it
intertwined with the MCU timeline while still avoiding any legal
issues with Sony, so we could still see him interact with the
Avengers, but he wouldn’t be allowed on the big screen or in anything
over 40 minutes in length, which is a small price to pay, but hey, at
least he gets to stay in the MCU if they do that, while Sony can
continue to produce disasters that make Tommy Wiseau’s films look like
James Cameron’s in comparison. Maybe if enough fans get on board we
could see this happen. #spideymcuseries
Fans had been eagerly waiting for a response from stars Tom Holland
and Zendaya who play Peter Parker and MJ respectively. They've been
quiet about it, much to fans disappointment, but for good reason, as
either way they still are contractually obligated to appear in more
Spider-Man films regardless of who holds the rights, along with Jon
Watts, who directed both Homecoming and Far From Home. It was pointed
out by fans however that both of the stars mentioned had unfollowed
Sony on Instagram. Many fans have been hoping that negotiations will
still be ongoing, but Sony's CEO has stepped up to say that it's not
happening and that for now, he's not in the MCU, and fans will just
have to get used to the idea for the time being, but said that they've
got a lot of plans moving forward for the character, but that doesn't
change the opinions of many fans, including myself. Sony also doesn’t
seem to have any negative opinions of Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige,
saying that they believe he has too much on his plate with him being
busy trying to integrate the X-men and Fantastic Four into the MCU
after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
So after all the effort that the Avengers had to put in to undo the
decimation caused by Thanos at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Sony
has got the legal Gauntlet, and they just snapped Spidey out of
existence in the MCU. Perhaps Disney shouldn't have put all there eggs
into one basket, or Sony should get their asses in gear and realize
that the catalyst for their success with the last two Spider-Man films
was actually because of the MCU. I think I speak for all Marvel fans
when I say that I can't wait to see him swing back into the MCU,
either that or Disney should get on making a Night Monkey movie (Go
see Far From home to understand that reference).