It was Aug. 20, 2019 when Marvel fans received the news that would forever change their lives – a fan-favorite comic book superhero legend, Spider-Man, was going to be removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This was Spider-Man’s third reboot within the last two decades; the first two were not able to gain the traction that Sony – the company currently holding the rights to produce and direct Spider-Man movies – had aimed for. These two lackluster series led Sony to share the rights to Spider-Man, allowing him to join the MCU in early 2015 in order to reinvent the web-swinger for the big screen.

The deal that Marvel Studios and Sony originally signed appeared to be a huge success. The newly-acquired hero was featured in “Spider-Man:Homecoming” and “Spider-Man:Far From Home”,  both of which were popular and profitable. He also guest starred in three other MCU films: “Captain America: Civil War”, “Avengers:Infinity War” and “Avengers:Endgame.” But, nearly four years later,  Spider-Man has been pulled out of the MCU. Why?

Reports circulated on Monday that, due to a financial stand off between executives, the two companies will no longer be sharing the rights to the beloved, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Disney was seeking to score a 50-50-50 profit on the character, which seemed outrageous to Sony, who had previously only given up five percent of gross profits from Marvel movies that featured Spidey. 

“I really enjoyed watching Spider-Man be involved with many other famous heroes, it’ll be a shame to have him leave and start over once again,” sophomore Jennifer Urbina said.

Spider-Man actor and heartthrob Tom Holland recently broke his silence and spoke out on the matter: “Who knows what the future holds? All I know is that I’m going to continue playing Spider-Man and having the time of my life.”

Peter Parker was arguably Marvel’s most popular and relatable character left in the MCU, and was very profitable to say the least; “Spider-Man: Homecoming” made a whopping 881 million dollars, and the most recent installment, “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” generated over 1.1 billion dollars at the box office alone. With the character gone, Marvel will need to reconsider the hero that is going to lead them into the future of the MCU

With Sony now entering their third Spider-Man reboot, fans are left wondering where Spider-Man is going from here. Sony already has a sequel in place for Venom, and several spin-offs introducing iconic Spider-Man foes- Morbius, Kraven, The Hunter, Silver Sable and Black Cat – are already in development.

To supplement that, there have been rumors that Sony might eventually go all in with their newly-acquired rights to the Spider-Man character and remake the Oscar-winning animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” into a live action movie. 

“I really just hope this does not mean we will have to witness Uncle Ben get murdered again,” sophomore Diego Moran said.

Although many fans are bummed that their favorite web-slinging hero is going to be exiting the MCU in such a shocking and unexpected way, they can be reassured that Sony will do everything they can do to bring the web slinger back to action.

[powr-twitter-feed id=74fc2f84_1567187283163]