By Ryan Flaherty

Following Tuesday’s news that the Spiderman franchise is leaving Marvel, there is a whole lot up in the air about what the future entails. How did we get to this point and what’s to come with the Disney/Spiderman partnership? The answers are all here.

Who owns the rights to Spiderman?

Although it seems simple, this question is actually slightly complicated. Way back in 1999 Sony bought the rights to Spiderman from an independent comic book publisher, and developed them into the series of films starring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield over the next few years. During this time, Disney bought Marvel and gained access to the majority of Marvel superheroes- except Spiderman.

The partnership between Disney and Sony began in 2011, when Sony sold the conglomerate the merchandising rights for the franchise. While Sony retained all creative control of the actual films, Disney handled toys, backpacks, shirts, cups, lunch boxes, and anything else you can imagine that you can put spiderman on. 

In 2014 Disney began negotiations to bring Spiderman into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with talks to include him in the 2016 film ‘Captain America: Civil War’. The talks fell through, and he remained a Sony entity. However, just a year later Disney and Sony met again to potentially reboot the franchise in a partnership with Marvel. This is where things get complicated.

What’s the deal that Sony and Disney had?

In 2015 Disney and Sony reached an agreement to reboot the films in a combined effort with both studios. The deal was reported to be very specific about what rights Marvel had with the character, and explicitly stated that Spiderman could not appear in any television shows (like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). 

Both sides appeared to be excited about the deal, with President of Marvel Entertainment Kevin Feige saying “I never thought we’d be able to make a Spider-Man movie set in our universe, and here we are. It truly was a dream-come-true scenario.” President of International Film and TV Sanford Panitch said in a similar statement “Because we were united in what we were trying to accomplish, it made for a very easy process. We’re getting a superhero movie produced by the greatest superhero movie producer in the world.”

The first film ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’ proved that the partnership between the two companies worked brilliantly. Kevin Feige produced both the first and second Marvel Spiderman films and Disney’s oversight certainly created hits. However Sony also had a large hand in the creative process with Amy Pascal, Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment,  casting star Tom Holland, hiring director Jon Watts, developing the villain “Vulture” and overall lending a hand in developing the script. 

What’s going on now?

The deal made between Disney and Sony in 2015 mentioned before gave Disney 5% of the gross profit.  According to Deadline, this year Disney attempted to change this to a 50/50 split of profit, which Sony declined. This resulted in a standoff in which neither company reached a solution. The outcome is the end of the deal, meaning the Spiderman franchise will return to its original home at Sony. However, Disney will retain the merchandising rights they secured in the 2011 deal. 

What do Disney and Sony have to say about it?

As of today, Disney has not yet released a statement but Sony has clarified what’s going on on their side.

“Much of today’s news about Spider-Man has mischaracterized recent discussions about Kevin Feige’s involvement in the franchise. We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live action Spider-Man film. We hope this might change in the future, but understand that the many new responsibilities that Disney has given him—including all their newly added Marvel properties—do not allow time for him to work on IP they do not own. Kevin is terrific and we are grateful for his help and guidance and appreciate the path he has helped put us on, which we will continue.”

Rather than cite the money disagreement as the source, Sony states that Kevin Feige simply has too much on his plate following the recent Disney/FOX merger as well as an enormous array of Marvel films. Additionally, they pointed out that the Spiderman IP is something that Disney does not own.

Will there still be Marvel crossovers?

Since Spiderman no longer has a partnership with Disney, crossovers seem to be no longer viable. Although the Avengers franchise is over, there was still the opportunity to include other Marvel intellectual property.

Who’s to blame?

Sony had the original rights to the IP, and Spiderman is their most profitable franchise- so it’s understandable that they would want the majority of the income. From the other side of things, Disney asked for a 50/50 split following a 5/95 split which is quite a large jump to make.

Right now there’s a multitude of angry Spiderman fans blaming Sony for taking away their favorite superhero. While it’s understandable that there’s anger and a need to blame someone, the fact is that this just comes down to business, and this is how the industry works. We’re currently in an extremely volatile time with almost every entertainment company preparing to launch a streaming service, and the loss of rights to shows and films will not be isolated events. As the entertainment industry continues to arrange for the upcoming streaming war, companies will continue to negotiate the rights to various franchises. After all, every war has to be won. 

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Need even more clarification? Here are the resources we used:

Elderkin, Beth. “Spider-Man Showdown: Sony Releases an Official Statement to Clarify Its Disney Relationship.” io9, io9, 21 Aug. 2019, io9.gizmodo.com/spider-man-showdown-sony-releases-an-official-statemen-1837438904.

Ouellette, Jennifer. “Spider-Man Is out of the MCU Thanks to Sony/Disney Standoff.” Ars Technica, 20 Aug. 2019, arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/spider-man-is-out-of-the-mcu-thanks-to-sonydisney-standoff/.

Palmeri , Christopher, and Anousha Sakoui. “Sony-Disney Spat Threatens Spider-Man’s Role in Marvel Films.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 20 Aug. 2019, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-20/sony-disney-spat-threatens-spider-man-s-place-in-marvel-universe.

“Inside the Deal That Brought Sony’s ‘Spider-Man’ Back to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2017, http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-sony-marvel-spider-man-20170626-story.html.

Rodriguez, Ashley. “‘Spider-Man’ Is Back in the Marvel Universe-but the Film Studio Won’t Get a Penny of the Profits.” Quartz, Quartz, 6 July 2017, qz.com/1020387/spider-man-is-back-in-the-marvel-universe-but-the-film-studio-wont-get-a-penny-of-the-profits/.