Sony Leaks Reveal Discussions With Marvel Over Spider-Man

Spider-Man came a lot closer to appearing in Spider-Man: Civil War and even appearing in solo films produced by Marvel than many fans would probably suspect.

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Those tantalizing possibilities were revealed by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, which found evidence in emails leaked by hackers earlier this week that Sony and Marvel had already had discussions about sharing Spider-Man in movies. Those talks included top executives from both sides and focused on not only a Civil War appearance, but also a new series of movies starring the wall-crawler that would be produced by Marvel but with creative and marketing aspects controlled by Sony. Alas, any chance for a deal appears to be dead.

I’m going to take the contrary position here and say that I’m actually glad Spidey couldn’t get worked into the third Captain America movie. Yes, he was a pivotal character in Civil War in the comics, but it would have seemed rushed to get him into its movie equivalent since he hasn’t existed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. On top of that, Peter Parker’s change of heart during the story does nothing to affect its eventual outcome, so it’s not a deal-breaker for Marvel not to have him around.

The prospect of Marvel-produced Spider-Man films is much more of a missed opportunity. The public seems tired of Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man series even though it’s just two movies old, and while I wouldn’t have welcomed another reboot (and certainly not another origin story), just the chance to tie Marvel’s greatest hero into the MCU would have given his big screen incarnation a much-needed shot in the arm.

Now it seems like we’ll never know, which is a shame. When someone writes the e-book on the super hero era of movies decades from now, a Marvel-Sony Spider-Man deal is going to be one of the biggest “what if?” scenarios possible.

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