Marvel has just announced four release dates for 2023. Noticeably absent from that list, though, is a standalone Spider-Man flick and while fans might not want to hear it, the omission could spell trouble for the beloved superhero.
Yes, mere months after Tom Holland convinced executives to strike a deal to let his character rejoin the MCU, it looks like Disney and Sony might be planning for the web-head to be ousted yet again. Following a very public falling out, the two studios came to an agreement earlier this year that allows Peter Parker to stay in the cinematic universe for two more movies. Spider-Man 3 is slated for a 2021 release, while another appearance onscreen should be happening somewhere around that time as well.
Meanwhile, the Sony hack of 2014 confirmed that the studio plans to release one solo Spider-Man movie every two years and they’ve stuck to this guideline religiously over the past few installments: Spider-Man: Homecoming hit theaters in 2017, Spider-Man: Far From Home was released in 2019 and Spider-Man 3 is scheduled for July 2021. The fact that there’s no plan to release another film starring the web-slinger in 2023 is therefore cause for some concern.
As ScreenRant explains:
There’s been intense speculation about Spider-Man’s MCU future – or, perhaps, his lack of it. This new agreement only covers two films, with no promise of further cooperation down the line. There have been unsubstantiated reports that Marvel then intend to write Spider-Man out of the MCU, and a carefully-worded comment from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige seemed to imply Tom Holland’s Spider-Man could be swinging over to the Sony villains universe. Now the new slate suggests Marvel is currently operating under the assumption that there won’t be a Spider-Man: Homecoming 4 in 2023.
Although Marvel produce the MCU’s Spider-Man movies, they technically do so on Sony’s behalf, meaning they’re scheduled and booked by Sony; and there’s no way even Marvel Studios is moving to five films in 2023.
As mentioned above, it appears that Marvel is moving to a four-film-a-year plan now, as they’ll drop one of their movies every financial quarter, thus giving fans a regular dose of superhero action without wearing out their welcome. Their 2022 and 2023 release dates follow this scheme, and as ScreenRant says, this implies that that they won’t add in a Spider-Man flick at a later date. After all, they wouldn’t want their movies to compete with one another, so it seems like the earliest we’ll be getting the franchise’s fourth installment is in 2024.
Of course, it’s possible that this scheduling has nothing to do with the character’s potential departure once more from the MCU, but then again, it’s easy to read between the lines and see both sides plotting their way out if another deal doesn’t materialize over the next couple of years.