The partnership between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios is now finalized, which is major news for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It will likely also affect future seasons of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and likely future development of Netflix’s exclusive and original Marvel live-action series as they are tied into the MCU.
Anybody that has neither read the comics nor watched any of the Marvel Comics cartoons are wondering about the significance of the partnership between the two powerful studios. The partnership allows Spider-Man to officially enter the MCU and vice-versa.
People that have read the comics and/or watched the cartoon series have likely asked: How come we never see Spider-Man, Wolverine, or other characters in the MCU?
The partial answer: intellectual property rights.
The full answer: intellectual property rights for different mediums of entertainment.
Sony currently holds the film rights to the Spider-Man franchise and 20th Century Fox holds the film rights to X-Men (and everything else directly related to the franchise) & Fantastic Four, with the latter receiving an upcoming film reboot on August 7th.
This is why you haven’t seen characters from those franchises in the MCU, but Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are loopholes.
You can see the twin siblings in the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron, which hits theaters on May 1st.
They will not be classified as mutants because the Marvel film rights for the term belongs to 20th Century Fox because of the film rights to X-Men. On a side note, Marvel Comics has issued a memorandum to the X-Men Department for a freeze on new characters because 20th Century Fox would automatically get the rights to use them in future X-Men films.
The important point made is that Spider-Man is now joining the MCU because of Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures’ official partnership, which involves taking the masked web-slinger in a new direction.
He will appear in a future MCU film, but the name of the film has not been revealed. The partnership also allows integration of MCU characters into future Spider-Man films, but nothing has been confirmed about retaining Andrew Garfield as the titular hero or replacing him with another actor.
It is confirmed that Spider-Man will be in the upcoming 2016 film Captain America: Civil War — the consequence of the announcement is that the planned movie about the Sinister Six will be delayed.
Marvel Studios is affected even further because it slightly pushed back the release dates of the Phase 3 films. IGN reports Thor: Ragnarok will be pushed from July 2017 to November 2017, Black Panther will be pushed back from November 2017 to July 2018, Captain Marvel will be pushed back from July 2018 to November 2018, and Inhumans will be pushed back from November 2018 to July 2019.
Spider-Man’s third film is scheduled for 2017.
The announcement affects everything because it means scripts have to be reworked to include Spider-Man and vice-versa, the budgets for each film will be affected, and more.
This partnership gives Marvel Studios a lot more to work with.
In the mainstream comic universe, Spider-Man is a central figure in the Civil War.
Tony Stark aka Iron Man took in Spider-Man as his protege, but Spider-Man left and joined Captain America’s side. It ultimately spawned a unique storyline for Spider-Man when he unmasked himself prior to the Civil War and joined the pro-registration side. J. Jonah Jameson even filed a lawsuit against Peter Parker, who is Spider-Man.
Spider-Man’s family has a history with the Super Soldier program, which makes Red Skull his enemy by proxy.
The web-slinger also has history with S.H.I.E.L.D let alone Nick Fury. That allows for more creativity with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clark Gregg, who plays Agent Phil Coulson in the show and MCU, voices the same role in Ultimate Spider-Man.
Spider-Man and Daredevil share a mutual enemy in the Kingpin.
The partnership opens a new world of possibilities.
If only Marvel Studios could get the film rights to the X-Men & Fantastic Four franchises or if it could form a workable relationship with 20th Century Fox, it would be a further game changer.
There is Wolverine’s history with Black Widow and Captain America to think about.
Mr. Fantastic sided with Iron Man on the pro-registration side, while the Invisible Woman and Human Torch sided with Captain America on the anti-registration side.
