This week, a bombshell hit the internet suggesting that Sony was currently in some kind of negotiations with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and allow him to team up with the Avengers. Fans of the web slinger have been begging hoping to see him join the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for some time now, especially since the brand new Amazing Spider-Man franchise has been a bit of a disappointment.
While it would be great to see Sony and Marvel come to some sort of agreement allowing Peter Parker to team up with the likes of Tony Stark and Captain America, it’s certainly not the only option that Sony has right now. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 did bring in over $700 million at the global box office, so it’s not like they have dead weight on their hands. Why give the rights over to their competitor when they can just, you know… reboot again?
According to Badass Digest, that’s one of the options the studio is considering. Their sources claim that the Venom solo film is “functionally dead again,” and that Sony is considering two big ideas: Put Spider-Man on the shelf “for four or five years” in favor of trying to launch franchises with various side characters (like the female-led 2017 movie they’re planning), or use Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six movie as a “soft reboot” of the Spider-Man character. They would recast the role and have Spidey work with the villains, a la The Dirty Dozen, to take down some larger threat and from there they could proceed with a new Spider-Man franchise.
Personally, I’m a bit skeptical about the whole thing. As I said earlier, Spider-Man is still bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars for the studio, so despite a poor reception, The Amazing Spider-Man franchise is not a complete disaster. Does the studio have to find an exciting direction to take the character in order to keep fans interested? Of course. But I’ll tell you one thing: Fans were pretty upset that they were rebooting Spider-Man five years after Sam Raimi’s ill-fated Spider-Man 3. How do you think they’d react to another reboot, giving us three different Spider-Man franchises in less than twenty years?
I think putting Spider-Man away for a little while and slowly figuring out their next move is the smartest thing Sony can do right now. Or, better yet, they could go the Miles Morales route, which is what Andrew Garfield wants anyway. That way, Sony can have their cake and eat it too; they would effectively end the Amazing Spider-Man franchise and “soft reboot” the property in one fell swoop.
Tell us, what do you think of this news? Do any of Sony’s current ideas sound appealing to you, or would you rather they just give Spider-Man over to Marvel and be done with it? Sound off in the comments section below.
