After years of fans demanding it, Marvel Studios finally has Spider-Man back. Well, kind of.
It was officially announced last night that Marvel and Sony have reached an agreement. According to the new deal, the two studios would essentially share the character, with Sony “continu[ing] to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films,” while Marvel will get to use him in their films as well. They’ll also be working together on the new films, as the word “collaborate” was used repeatedly.
But don’t expect to see Andrew Garfield suiting up again. The press release makes mention of “a new creative direction for the web slinger” and says that “the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.” His next solo film will be under the Sony umbrella and will hit theatres July 28, 2017.
That date was previously held by Thor: Ragnarok, which is moving to November 3, 2017. That was set aside for Black Panther, which moves to July 6, 2018. Captain Marvel was scheduled for that day. It now moves to November 2, 2018, Inhumans old release date. That movie now comes out July 12, 2019.
All that date-shuffling goes to prove something I’ve said for ages. With Spider-Man (at least nominally) back in Marvel’s fold, don’t expect the studio to give as much of a chance to its less-marquee characters. If Marvel had Spider-Man a few years ago there’d be no Guardians of the Galaxy. If they’d had him just a year ago we wouldn’t have Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange or Black Panther on the horizon. What won’t we be seeing now they do have him?
But at least we’ll probably get to see Spidey get unmasked in Civil War. So there’s that.
