Mysterio’s shocking plot twist at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home had fans begging to know what’s going to happen next, but sadly, Spider-Man won’t be sticking around to see the aftermath.
In 2015, Disney, of which owns Marvel and Sony made a deal in that Sony would allow Marvel to integrate Spider-Man into its cinematic universe, allowing his appearance in films such as Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Sony agreed to put up 100% of the production costs while Disney received 5% of the grossing from first day release alongside owning merchandising rights for the character.
However, just recently, Sony and Disney have been disputing the producer credits and character licenses. It seems that dispute is entirely money-oriented as Disney has clearly seen the worth and popularity of Tom Holland’s spidey and has proposed a 50/50 co-financing deal. As result, each company would put up half of the production costs and then split the profits. Sony refused. When Sony offered to keep the current arrangement where Marvel received 5%, Disney also refused.
As a result, Holland’s Spider-Man is in terrible and his future in the MCU is not looking so good. Response to this news has been huge. Joan Lee, daughter of Stan Lee, in particular, commented saying: “No one could have treated my father worse than Marvel and Disney’s executives…Whether it’s Sony or someone else’s, the continued evolution of Stan’s characters and his legacy deserves multiple points of view.” Defending Sony, Lee argues that Disney’s refusal is removing the magic away from the character entirely for financial gain. But if this dispute means we’re going to get ANOTHER origin story of Spider-Man? I’m out.
Fans have also been on Twitter and other social media saying that Disney has been using the dispute as a plot to get the media to respond and therefore using that as a bargaining chip with Sony. If anything, this exposes the financial motives and exploitative means of corporations like Sony, Disney and Marvel.
For Disney and Sony it’s about money while for us, it’s about characters and Spider-Man will no doubt be missed but definitely not forgotten in the MCU.
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