After a banner year that saw the Marvel Cinematic Universe roll out Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home and the next phase of stories, a chink the Marvel Studios armor may have been revealed. Deadline details Sony has cut the chord on its deal with Marvel Studios, which allows for the comic home base to have access to the Spider-Man character, thug ending any ties president Kevin Feige can have with the friendly neighborhood hero.
The root of the partnership rift surrounds dispute between the Sony and Disney, the latter of the two owns Marvel Studios. The disagreement came as Disney requested a 50/50 split of the co-financing deal that would allow for more stories to be told in the Spider-Man universe. That offer was rejected and Sony aimed to continue the deal which “Marvel receives in the range of 5% of first dollar gross.”
Sony is seeing Disney’s asking point as too high, not wanting to give up half of the Spider-Man universe, which can contain up to 900 characters while they already own the rights to merchandising.
To date, Spider-Man: Far From Home has earned over $1 billion at the box office and became the highest-grossing film in Sony’s history, passing the James Bond flick Skyfall.
Sources also reveal there are two more Spider-Man films that are being developed and would bring back director Jon Watts and actor Tom Holland for the series. Sony doesn’t believe they need Feige to get the job done, however, it would be complex with the current storyline based around the elements of the MCU in a post-Iron Man world. Not to mention, the film industry believes Feige films are gold and he has the numbers to support them. Each film in the MCU is a number one opener and brought in a collective $26.8 billion.
Feige will takeover X-Men from the Fox purchase and is building new series for the forthcoming Disney +, but he would love to retain the storytelling of Spider-Man as it is believed to be a personal favorite of his.
Sony is already deep into the creation of a Venom sequel and is already planning Morbius, Kraven The Hunter, and more.
Much of today’s news about Spider-Man has mischaracterized recent discussions about Kevin Feige’s involvement in the franchise. We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live action Spider-Man film. (1/3)
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) August 21, 2019
We hope this might change in the future, but understand that the many new responsibilities that Disney has given him – including all their newly added Marvel properties – do not allow time for him to work on IP they do not own. (2/3)
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) August 21, 2019
Kevin is terrific and we are grateful for his help and guidance and appreciate the path he has helped put us on, which we will continue. (3/3)
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) August 21, 2019