Spider-Man: Homecoming - Spidey May Leave MCU After Sequel

If you're a Spider-Man fan, yesterday was one of those hype-building days you look forward to for years. There's a new Spidey movie coming, and thanks to the second trailer, we know a lot more of what we can expect from Jon Watts MCU tie-in. It looks great and Tom Holland's performance as Spider-Man and Peter Parker continues to look like a real challenger to Tobey Maguire.

Today, the news is potentially less good, as it seems that the deal that was painstakingly crafted between Sony and Marvel to bring Spidey back to the MCU might run out frustratingly sooner than anyone could have guessed. By the sound of it, the deal was done with great difficulty by Amy Pascal at Sony and Kevin Feige at Marvel, as their bosses apparently seemed less than enthusiastic.

It's done now, and there's already a Homecoming sequel date set, apparently, but then what? According to Pascal, who has since left her position at Sony, Spidey might then leave the MCU entirely once more (unless there's another negotiation, of course). She spoke to CosmicBookNews at CinemaCon, and revealed the details, as well as suggesting that Sony could then opt to keep the character for themselves:

“One of the things that I think is so amazing about this experience is that you don’t have studios deciding to work together to make a film very often. In fact it may never happen again, after we do the sequel. Because Sony, and Disney, and Marvel all decided that the right thing to do was to allow Peter Parker and Spider-Man to be in the MCU and to work with the Marvel guys and have them produce this film. And I think that was a very rare thing for three companies to do, and a very brilliant thing for them to decide to do because there are only so many stories that you can tell again and again and again about Spidey, and this is something that we would have never been able to do in any other way. So it was a very selfless thing that very smart on the part of all the companies.”

This is not merely an ex-Sony employee airing details as a grievance - Pascal still works as a producer on the Spider-Man movies, after all. By the sound of it, this is merely an expression that she has no control over whether Spidey stays in the MCU after 2019.

If Homecoming makes a lot of money, presumably Marvel and Disney will be far happier to discuss another deal that no doubt sees them sign over a lot of money for those rights. If it doesn't, it'll probably be a lot easier to watch the web-slinger go. But then what if the films are too big a hit? What if Sony then decide they want that entire pot for themselves, without acknowledging the role Marvel played in building it?

It looks from the outside like those negotiations are going to be a potential minefield when they come back around. Perhaps there's some confidence to be had in the fact that Kevin Feige outlined a plan to mimic the Harry Potter movies, and keep Peter Parker in school for years? That would surely suggest confidence of more than just two solo films, right?

Let's hope that whatever happens down the line, Homecoming is the film it deserves to be.