It is no secret that Sony and Disney have split ways regarding the Spider-Man franchise, as covered by recent articles. The real question is, can Spider-Man still succeed without the help of the MCU? Disney and Marvel have done an amazing job at weaving the web-slinger into their universe and even added him to the Avengers team. It is easy to see that fans don’t want to see him leave. Especially over a money dispute.
Disney, no doubt, had this trick up their sleeve from the start. They worked with Sony to bring up the failing Spider-Man franchise for a small fee (small in Disney terms that is) and then when it became a success, they would capitalize on it. Disney knew that if Sony didn’t meet their demands and ties were broken that the fan base would react the way it has been. Fans want to see Spider-Man in the MCU and now it looks like Sony is the bad guy taking that away, and for what, something as simple as throwing money at Disney, the company that made the web crawler a success where Sony has failed in the past? Maybe Sony should pay up for all the help Disney gave them. Sony doesn’t think so and maybe they decided they learned all they could from the master and can succeed on their own now. Only time will tell.
Since Disney already laid the groundwork for Peter Parker and his alter ego, Sony just has to continue running with it, but can they do it? The simple answer is yes, the bigger question though is how?
I can not speak for Sony, but the best way to do this is to start moving toward a real Sinister Six movie and create a universe around Spider-Man. Sony is already on the move to make a Venom 2 movie and could easily tie the two characters together in that film. If they learned anything from Disney, Venom 2 should be way better than the mess of Venom 1 and adding Tom Holland as Spider-Man to the third act fight would make fans lose their minds.
Picture this for Venom 2. Carnage has owned Venom the entire movie and Eddie Brock is ready to give his life to take down the insane, symbiote-wielding Cletus Kasady. Venom and Carnage engage in a visually stunning fight sequence and again Venom is losing BIG TIME showing he can not take Carnage on his own. As Carnage has Venom pinned under him and is ready to give the final blow (with the audience on bated breath knowing it will kill Venom and Eddie Brock), in swings Spider-Man to throw Carnage off of Venom and delivers a classic Peter Parker one-liner suitable for any Avengers movie. Venom and Spider-Man work together to take down Kasady/Carnage. Venom and Spider-Man end the film as allies, until the next Spider-Man movie where Venom shows he is more of an anti-hero and possible villain.
The short of it is Sony better have learned from Marvel and Disney on how to set up a universe and use that knowledge to move forward. They need the best crew of people they can get behind the camera and not be worried about throwing ridiculous amounts of money at the franchise to make that happen. If they are worried about losing money up front, they will never be successful in the future. If their goal is only to make a few bucks per movie instead of playing the long game, there is no hope.
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