It’s official: Sony Pictures and Disney have announced that Marvel will produce the next Spider-Man movie… and Spidey will even appear in an upcoming Marvel film.
The landmark deal will see Spider-Man appear for the first time in Marvel’s Cinematic Unvierse, with Marvel and Sony essentially sharing the character.
“Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man,” said an official press release. “Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from [the MCU].”
“Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next instalment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal.”
Of course, that release date should be familiar to Marvel fans – after all, it’s the original release date of the next Thor movie, Thor: Ragnarok. But does that mean that Spider-Man and Thor will be going head-to-head at the box office? Not quite…
As part of this astounding deal, it looks as though Marvel Studios is reshuffling its own release date plans to accommodate the next Spider-Man movie, switching Thor: Ragnarok to a more comfortable 3 November 2017.
And the rest of Marvel’s upcoming slate has been pushed back as a result.
“Together, [Feige and Pascal] will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.”
But what does this all mean for Spider-Man fans?
Essentially, the good news is that we’ll be getting a new Spider-Man movie in 2017… and it’s going to be co-produced by the man who brought us the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And the even better news is that Spider-Man is going to show up in Marvel movies, too.
When will that happen? At the moment, your guess is as good as mine.
Although some have mentioned that it’s not impossible for Marvel to schedule some reshoots and put Spidey in Age of Ultron, I think it’s far more likely that we’ll see him first appear in Captain America: Civil War.
Of course, there’s also Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on the horizon, but with Civil War being such a landmark movie anyway, the addition of Spider-Man would really hit home.
Either way, it’s exciting times ahead for Marvel fans. And perhaps we’ll get the awesome Spider-Man movie we’ve been waiting for.
The next Spider-Man movie heads to cinemas on 28 July 2017.
Are you looking forward to seeing Spider-Man in the MCU? What about the all-new Spider-Man movie? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
