After last night’s scoop surrounding the Sony Hack, news spread that at one point Marvel Studios were in serious talks with Sony bosses to include Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. While both properties, Spidey and Cap, originate from the pages of Marvel’s comics, their big-screen rights are split across two studios. Spider-Man belongs to Sony, and Cap belongs to Marvel. This means that sadly, despite Spider-Man’s appearance in the Civil War comic book storyline, he cannot legally appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Now, thanks to Latino Review, we have some clarification on the matter. It turns out that the movie trilogy deal Sony Pictures turned down was not a Marvel-produced trio of Spider-Man movies that Sony would take creative control over. Rather, it was a co-production deal between the two studios, and it’s still on the table.
From a source familiar with the matter, I can report that the deal Sony finally rejected was NOT a Marvel trilogy of movies that Sony would have control over. Instead, it was a co-production deal where Marvel and Sony would split future Spider-Man film costs 60/40 (Marvel paying the larger part) while MARVEL retained control of the Spider-Man creative property with the potential to have him cross-over into Marvel’s Phase films, like an appearance in Captain America: Civil War.