Hacked Sony emails included talks of Marvel producing Spider-Man films

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The recent Sony hacks have brought to light a lot of interesting and provoking information, chief among them for movie fans, discussion about the ol' webhead appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One such deal in discussion would include Marvel Studios producing new Spider-Man films while Sony Pictures retains creative control, marketing and distribution. This also would have included an appearance of Spider-Man in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. Those familiar with the comics know that Spider-Man was an integral figure, caught between Iron Man's pro-registration act and Captain America's fight for equality. This eventually results in Spider-Man revealing his identity to the world. The talks between Sony and Marvel ended up being just that, with no deal struck and Sony retaining the sole rights to producing Spider-Man films.

I think I'm in awe as much as the rest of you, in the possibility that all this was brought about by a Seth Rogen film. I mean, GREEN LANTERN was pretty offensive but I'm not about to leak sensitive materials of people who work in the industry over it. Furthermore, I don't think that discussions between Sony and Marvel should come as a surprise to anyone. I'm sure Marvel has had plenty of discussions with Sony about Spider-Man and Twentieth Century Fox about X-Men, but that's just the nature of the business. Frankly, there may have been just too many cooks in the kitchen to create something worthwhile. We'll never know. What we do know is that Sony has big plans for Spider-Man, and while they were momentarily halted due to THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, that doesn't mean they don't want to follow through with some version of them. With the inclusion of Spider-Man in CIVIL WAR, that ultimately alters what Sony can do with the character after that film and it may not have fallen in line with what's already in development for SINISTER SIX and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3.

Like any comic book fan out there, I would love to see Spider-Man interact with other Marvel characters, but only if it's done right. It's no secret that Marvel uber-producer Kevin Feige has a strong hand in the direction of the movies being produced thus far, and if Sony were to retain creative control despite Marvel producing, there may have been too much conflict in what Sony could do and what Marvel wanted to do. Frankly, it should only be done if it's done right. It's easy to point the finger at Sony because of the failure of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, but what if this had happened after the release of Sam Raimi's widely praised SPIDER-MAN 2? Would audiences have been more trusting in Sony to create their own spin-off films within the Spider-Man universe? At the end of the day, all we have is the question of "What if?"

Sony is reevaluating their strategy of Spider-Man because when it comes down to it we all benefit by having great Spider-Man films. They know they have a lot to make up for when it comes to the adventures of Peter Parker and I'm willing to give them a shot to see how their new plans pan out.  After all, this doesn't mean we'll never see Spider-Man play with the likes of The Avengers.  Time will tell, true believers.

The first of Sony’s shared universe pictures, Drew Goddard‘s SINISTER SIX, is set to hit cinemas on November 11, 2016.