Spider Man is an orphan once again, and Tom Holland, the current Peter Parker, could be out of a job.
Sony Pictures apparently refused to make a 50/50 deal with Disney-Marvel over the latter’s participation going forward with Spider Man movies. The result is that Spider Man will return to Sony without his Marvel buddies, to start his own universe. The Avengers, with whom Spider Man has been involved now for several movies including the colossus “Endgame,” will go on without him.
For eons, Spider Man had been parked at Sony getting his own movies. Then the Marvel Universe took off at Disney. The studios reached an agreement so that Spider Man could be part of the Marvel gang in Disney movies. The Marvel characters then appeared, at last, in the recent two Spider Man movies starring Tom Holland. Disney was paid a small fee for the exchange.
But now according to reports Marvel’s Kevin Feige– who waved a magic wand over Spider Man: Homecoming, and Far From Home — will not continue to work with Sony’s Tom Rothman or the studio. He’s out. Reports say Rothman wouldn’t even talk to Disney.
“Far from Home” has turned out to be Sony’s highest grossing movie ever. Sony should be sending thank you notes to Feige. After all, the last set of Spider Man movies did not work out so well. But now Sony has called for a divorce. It’s not going to end well.
Disney-Marvel and Feige must be shocked. They weaved Spider Man into their films as the successor to Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man. That plot line and character arc is now gone. At Sony, their choice will be whether to proceed with Tom Holland in more movies, or cut him loose and start over again. Sony has a history of killing the Spider Man franchise when it’s successful. They did it to Tobey Maguire when they replaced with Andrew Garfield. Now they may do it again.
Don’t worry about Tom Holland. He’s 23, loaded, and very talented. The world is his oyster. But for Marvel movie fans, it’s a big loss.
