Some people are still holding out hope for Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man to return to the MCU. That includes longtime Marvel Studios actor/director Jon Favreau, who described himself as “cautiously optimistic” about future collaborations between Disney and Sony. But at the same event, the CEO of Sony Pictures made it clear that there aren’t any more franchise crossovers on the cards.
“For the moment the door is closed,” said Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra, speaking at Variety‘s Entertainment & Technology summit.
Vinciquerra shared positive comments about Marvel producer Kevin Feige‘s input into the last two Spider-Man films but added that Feige is “stretched incredibly thin” thanks to other Marvel projects. Feige’s departure is the key issue of the Sony/Marvel conflict, with Marvel’s parent company Disney demanding a much bigger share of Spider-Man’s profits if Feige was to continue co-producing the movies. Sony chose to reject the offer, and now Spider-Man will become an independent franchise—including spinoff characters like Venom and Black Cat, of course.
“Spider-Man was fine before the event movies, did better with the event movies, and now that we have our own universe, he will play off the other characters as well,” said Vinciquerra, highlighting the popularity of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which succeeded with no connection to the MCU. “I think we’re pretty capable of doing what we have to do here.”
There’s currently no release date for Tom Holland’s third Spider-Man solo movie, but ideas for the film have already been pitched, and spinoffs Venom 2 and Morbius (starring Jared Leto as Morbius the Living Vampire) will come out in 2020.
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H/T Variety