Spider-Man: Homeless? - What's Next For Tom Holland's Peter Parker?
4. What Comes Next?
Let’s get the good news out of the way: if Sony go ahead without the involvement of Disney, Marvel Studios or Kevin Feige, it’s almost certain we’ll see Spider-Man back in cinemas quicker than if he’d stayed with the MCU. Remember, now that they’ve announced Black Panther 2 for May 2022, Marvel’s slate is more or less set for the next three years.
It’s not clear how often Sony needs to release a Spider-Man movie in order to avoid the rights legally reverting back to Disney/Marvel Studios, but the five year gap between Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 and Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man didn’t cause a default, so that’s not a factor.
Regardless, Sony would be wise to take advantage of Far From Home’s franchise-best performance in the global box office, busting a billion for the first time and this month passing Skyfall as Sony’s biggest ever movie.
Licensed or not, Spider-Man is Sony’s biggest cinematic property. Peter Parker has represented a big part of the company’s offering to shareholders for seventeen years now, since Sam Raimi’s first movie hauled in $821million worldwide: their top ten biggest movies of all time are mostly spider-shaped.
With that, plus last year’s surprisingly powerful performance by Venom and the 2019 Oscar for Best Animated Feature nabbed by Into The Spider-Verse, Sony are almost certain to look at Venom, Spider-Man and Spider-verse sequels as a priority.
Was Disney and Feige’s reluctance to commit to a release date for a Far From Home sequel part of the reason for this week’s breakdown in negotiations, or was it the other way around? Who’s to say…
NEXT: ARE THE MAIN PLAYERS COMING BACK?