Spider-Man: Homeless? - What's Next For Tom Holland's Peter Parker?

1. Is There Any Way Back?

Sony and Disney could, of course, resume negotiations and strike a new deal: but the signs aren’t hopeful.

Rewatch that Feige/Holland clip again - Feige might be playing hardball, but it sounds like he’s made his peace with losing the character as part of the MCU. Equally, Holland seems to be playing down the importance of the split, soothing troubled waters by saying that they’ll make a great Spider-Man threequel (and more) regardless.

Added to that, Sony don’t really seem to be acting in good faith so far. Their official statement on the split on Twitter blamed Disney for withdrawing Feige’s services due to his workload, mentioning nothing about a breakdown in negotiations.

As you can see, in the same statement Sony also bizarrely claimed that Marvel Studios and Disney don’t own the Spider-Man IP, or intellectual property. Well of course they do: Sony just has the film licensing rights. If Sony owned the IP, Marvel wouldn’t be able to run a Spider-Man comic book.

With this kind of attitude, it’s going to take a little more than some financial fine-tuning for Disney and Sony to come back to the table again.

What does all that mean, then? Well, odds are we’ll see a sequel to Homecoming and Far From Home starring Tom Holland sooner rather than later - and certainly a lot sooner than would have been the case if Marvel Studios were still making the movie.

However, whether it’s a satisfactory culmination to the trilogy or not hinges on Sony enticing Jon Watts back as director, and Watts pulling together a story that addresses that huge cliffhanger without mentioning characters or story points that they’re no longer allowed to refer to.

Crucially, that will also mean Sony’s inexperienced executives reining in their desire to micromanage their biggest property and allowing the filmmakers themselves to make the film - something nobody’s confident about, given the company’s history.

Spider-Man may not yet be homeless following the Sony-Disney divorce... but it’s a big comedown, going from living in a castle to living in a condo, especially with this kind of landlord.