So Sony and Marvel Have Struck a Deal to Bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Non-geeks get annoyed by these stories, because they're not into comic-books. I get that, but I take these stories to be something besides comic-book stories -- they're business stories.

"Marvel Studios" did not even exist before 2007 (well, at least they had no product and no one really heard of them) and now they have the mega-corporation Sony begging to partner up with them.

I don't even love Marvel Studios films. I haven't really loved them since their first -- Iron Man. Avengers was well enough done, and I liked it, but it didn't surprise me like Iron Man.

But that's besides the point. They've made almost nothing but smart business moves, and their movies have at least been okay-leaning-to-good. I don't think they've made an actual bad movie yet.

I didn't really love Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, but I really enjoyed the business story behind it.

And I feel similarly about Marvel Studios.

By the way-- Marvel won this negotiation; that's why I say Sony "came begging." Sony insisted -- maybe as a negotiating point, but who knows -- that the MCU Spider-Man be played by Sony's actor, Andrew Garfield. Marvel said No, we want a new Spider-Man.

Well, the release says the new Spider-Man will appear in the MCU.

Marvel and Sony have announced a partnership that will officially bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The deal calls for "the new Spider-Man" (as the press release describes him) [my emphasis added-- ace.] to first appear in an upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film – though which film that will be is not named. Spider-Man will then star in his own new film, released by Sony, opening July 28th, 2017, which will be produced by Amy Pascal and Marvel’s Kevin Feige.

So Kevin Feige is coming to save the ailing Spider-Man franchise. Works out for both of them-- Marvel would prefer that Spider-Man's cinematic cache not continue to diminish under Sony's poor execution.

...

Fans will also be happy to hear that Marvel and Sony "are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films," which would indicate when Spider-Man gets his own solo films again, he’ll still likely be able to interact with MCU characters he’ll be seen with in the Marvel/Disney-distributed films.

The most likely film Spidey will first appear in will be Captain America: Civil War, which is already a bit of a super-hero monster mash as Captain America's co-star, and primary antagonist, will be Tony Stark. RDJr hasn't agreed to do any more Iron Man movies, but he has signed on to do the Avengers, and they also got him to agree to appear in the Captain America movie.

So, that one will be over-stuffed, and sort of an Avengers-level team up in itself.

posted by Ace at 11:30 AM

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