Supervising Producer, Greg Weisman, told IGN yesterday that Sony has given up the television rights to Spider-Man, including animation, in exchange for "some concession vis-a-vis the live action Spider-Man features."
Weisman states: "Sony is NO LONGER involved with 'The Spectacular Spider-Man.' I'm informed that Marvel can now produce the series, but of course, they don't have to."
Weisman elaborates further: "A number of folks at Marvel have said kind things about the show in the past, but as you can imagine they have a LOT on their plates right now, so no one's talked to me about any potential pick-ups since the world turned a bit upside-down. What hasn't changed, I imagine, is that we're still waiting to hear whether Disney XD even WANTS a new season. If Disney XD decides they don't want any episodes, it's no longer likely that we'd shop the series around to XD's competitors. So any decision begins at XD, I would think. And before you ask, no, nobody at Disney has talked to me about the series."
As for the future of the series, a third season is still up in the air. I believe it will happen, it's just going to take some red tape cutting by Marvel and Disney. 'The Spectacular Spider-Man' cartoon series makes these guys to much money for there not to be a third series.
Supervising Producer Victor Cook had this to say about possible third season plot lines: "I'd be very excited at the prospect of adding Kingpin to our cast. And as I've mentioned before, I'd love to do the occasional crossover, starting with the Human Torch. But the bigger concern is whether or not we get new episodes, not who guest stars in them."
I know we are talking about the animated series right now, but I have a bad feeling about this for Sony. I think this is the first blow of many. Soon I would bet the Spider-Man movie rights will go back to Marvel (now backed by Disney) and we will all be able to see The Punisher taking that famous shot at the Wall Crawler.
