Deadline has confirmed that Marvel Studios will no longer have any sort of creative involvement with future
Spider-Man movies.
This week,
Spider-Man: Far From Home became the highest grossing Sony Pictures movie of all-time, but this dispute has been going on behind the scenes for months now and it all boils down to Sony and Disney failing to reach an agreement over co-financing.
There are still two more Spider-Man movies in the works with director Jon Watts and star Tom Holland attached, but without something drastic happening, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige will have absolutely no involvement with them.
Disney wanted future Spider-Man movies to have 50/50 co-financing arrangement which would have seen them pay half for the movies but receive half the profits in return. This could have extended to other films in Sony's Spider-Verse had they agreed (bringing Venom into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for example), but it was a flat out "no" from Sony Pictures.
They weren't willing to compromise, and Sony simply did not want to share its biggest earner. They did, however, offer to keep the current arrangement going which sees Disney receive 5% of first dollar gross. Disney said "no." Sources tell the trade that Sony feels they will be fine without Feige and that they have an idea of where to take Spider-Man next. It just won't be in the MCU.
Needless to say, this will devastate fans and the fallout is bound to be felt in a huge way. Spider-Man just lost the MCU and the MCU just lost Spider-Man...how do you explain that?
UPDATE: According to Variety, "One source said that a deal might still be reached between Disney and Sony." Unfortunately, that's pretty vague so it may be best not to get your hopes up!
UPDATE #2: Or not. According to The Hollywood Reporter, they've confirmed that "[Sony] is set to part ways with Marvel Studios." They add that, "neither party was willing to cede enough ground to come to an agreement, leading to the break-up of the partnership and removal of Feige from his producing role."
Hit the "View List" button to check out some amazing
VFX stills from Spider-Man's final MCU adventure!
How times change, eh? Given how technology has advanced in the years since the original
Spider-Man trilogy, Peter Parker can now swing through the Big Apple while texting on his cell phone.
This must be a reference to the
Spider-Man video game as the wall-crawler can be seen striking the exact same pose players could pull off while using Peter's cell phone to take some selfies.
This sequence was a lot of fun, and it was pretty comical seeing how nervous Spidey was while addressing the crowd here.
In the trailers, this sequence obviously saw Peter suited up in his classic costume, but it's since been revealed that CGI was used to replace that in the previews and avoid any spoilers from leaking.
After being asked if he will be the next Iron Man, Peter made his escape and it quickly became clear that the hero was struggling to deal with the pressure being put on him after Tony Stark's death.
We saw snippets of this scene in the trailers, but this image is brand new! Director Jon Watts told us that it will be included on the eventual Blu-ray release of the movie as a short film of sorts.
This amazing before and after shot gives us an idea of how the sequence was put together entirely with CGI, and watching the hero battle Mysterio in this illusion-scape was tremendous fun.
The stealth suit received a fair bit of screentime in
Spider-Man: Far From Home and it looked great in action. However, after that battle with Mysterio, it's clear we won't be seeing it again.
Continue scrolling to check out some previously released
VFX stills from Spider-Man: Far From Home!
Back in his homemade suit, Peter Parker swings away from Mysterio in the illusion he's created, and that actually means that each of the wall-crawler's MCU costumes were included in this sequel.
Looking like a comic book panel brought to life, Mysterio pursues the wall-crawler through a twisted version of his high school, and it's fair to say that this was a spectacular way to kick things off.
Multiple Mysterios pursue Spidey, and the amazing next shot in this sequence saw him trapped within the villain's helmet. As visuals go in the MCU, this was a definite standout.
After punching through Mysterio's helmet, the wall-crawler plummets to the floor below, but is, of course, just in the warehouse where the villain managed to lure him to. The drones are creating the illusion.
Here, we see how the "B.A.R.F." technology Quentin Beck helped Tony Stark create is able to completely change the wall-crawler's surroundings and make him see things that aren't really there.
Here, we get a before and after look at how the entirely CG sequence was created, and it's astonishing to think that everything we saw on screen was brought to life solely with visual effects.
At the top of the Eiffel Tower, Mysterio manages to convince Spider-Man that he's kidnapped MJ, but it's all part of his plan to make the web-slinger reveal who else knows about his dastardly plan.
The Multiverse sequence in Doctor Strange was pretty trippy, but this one might just have it beat. We'll have more details for you tomorrow about moments that were removed from the illusion.
None of us expected to see Iron Man rise from the grave so soon, right? This is a truly horrifying piece of imagery, and one Mysterio uses to really mess with the wall-crawler's head.