Sony says the “door is closed” for now on Spider-Man returning to the MCU

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It was only a few weeks ago that a battle between Sony and Disney over Spider-Man came to light, and it seemed to spell doom for any future appearances of Spidey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As talks continued, there was hope that the two studios might reach a deal, but while speaking at Variety's Entertainment & Technology summit, Sony Pictures' CEO Tony Vinciquerra laid out some disappointing news.

After Sony and Disney failed to reach an agreement regarding financing terms for future Spider-Man movies, Vinciquerra stated that "for the moment the door is closed" regarding Spider-Man's possible return to the MCU. It's always possible that Spidey may return at some point in the future, but for now, it's probably something we need to accept. Vinciquerra stated that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige's increasingly busy workload (bringing the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and more into the MCU) was one of the reasons that talks with Disney broke down, but that there's "no ill will" between the two studios.

We had a great run with (Feige) on Spider-Man movies. We tried to see if there’s a way to work it out….the Marvel people are terrific people, we have great respect for them, but on the other hand we have some pretty terrific people of our own. Kevin didn’t do all the work.

Sony Pictures has a number of Spider-Man related projects in the works, including MORBIOUS, VENOM 2, and "five or six" TV series set in the Spider-Man world, so Tony Vinciquerra feels that Spider-Man himself will do "just fine" outside of the MCU. "Spider-Man was fine before the event movies, did better with the event movies, and now that we have our own universe, he will play off the other characters as well," Vinciquerra said. "I think we’re pretty capable of doing what we have to do here." I suppose time will tell.

The latest Spidey flick, SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, will hit Digital on September 17th, followed by a release on DVD/Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD on October 1, 2019.