The Future of the MCU


On Wednesday news broke that Disney and Sony were unable to reach an agreement to continue their shared production of Spider-Man films. That is a blow to fans, but also a blow the the future of the MCU and likely Spider-Man. While it's possible they get this worked out, let's consider what it would mean if this partnership is over.

For Sony:
The company has done a lot of Spider-Man films on their own. They had three with Tobey Maguire and two with Andrew Garfield. And aside from the first two, it was a sliding scale getting worse. The company did have "Into the Spider-Verse," which won an Oscar. But is there more to be wrung from that universe? Perhaps.

They are technically the producers of the Tom Holland Spider-Man films, too. Holland has played the part in five films ("Captain America: Civil War," a pair of Avengers films and two Spider-Man films). But the thing is this iteration of Spider-Man is very dependent on characters in the larger MCU. If they're no longer partners, even if you have Holland, where do you go from there? You're not getting Nick Fury or any part of the Stark Industries empire. These would be pretty fundamentally different films.

That kind of means that to move forward with live-action films, they might have to consider starting over... again.... That's not a prospect that fills fans, or likely the studio, with much joy. The other possibility is continuing with Holland as Spider-Man and scrubbing all the MCU elements, which will also be tricky considering where the story went.

For the MCU:
This is equally problematic. The MCU is in an interesting place, especially where the Avengers are concerned. Hulk is seemingly retired, Thor is in space, Captain America and Tony Stark are gone. Black Widow is dead, Hawkeye has retired to a streaming series on Disney+, ditto The Scarlett Witch, Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So there's plenty of questions about the Avengers going forward.

But "Spider-Man Far From Home" seemed to set up the idea of Spider-Man leading the Avengers moving forward. It was a good film, and one that put a lot of focus on Holland's young hero. And now, if he's missing, the future of that side of the franchise is certainly in doubt.

There are individual films and prequels available moving forward, and Marvel now has the X-Men and Fantastic Four back in the fold. So there are more options if they want to start over, but it would certainly be a blow to the ongoing story world they have currently built.

The Bottom Line:
This partnership was a commercial and creative win for everyone involved, and it made the films better. It's obviously proven to be lucrative, too, with this latest film going over $1 billion. I get the desire to negotiate better financial terms, but the best solution here is for both sides to come to a deal and keep this version of Spider-Man going strong and where he belongs.

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