It’s official! Spider-Man joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
After months of speculations and online reports in the wake of the Sony hacking scandal, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment have agreed on a new deal regarding the cinematic future of the lucrative web-slinger.
According to an official statement by Marvel,
“Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment 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, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they 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.”
Could that Marvel film be next year’s Captain America: Civil War? The film is set to go into production this year. There is also a small chance of Spider-Man making a debut at this year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron as that film went through reshoots in England last month.
The press statement also says that Marvel and Sony Pictures are “exploring opportunities” to incorporate other characters from the ever-growing MCU into future Spider-Man films.
The future is bright for both Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures. The only major Marvel characters and franchises that remain out of Marvel Studios’ creative control is 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise.
UPDATE: Marvel has released another statement regarding the change of release dates of its upcoming Phase 3 films to reflect the recent announcement.
Thor: Ragnarok will now hit theaters on November 3, 2017 taking the place of Black Panther while the latter film comes out on July 6, 2018. Black Panther‘s new date will push Captain Marvel to November 2, 2018 and Inhumans to July 12, 2019. The dates for Avengers: Infinity War, however, will not change.
