Like the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Blade, Daredevil, and more, Spider-Man was always off-limits to Marvel Studios. There had long been chatter about the web-slinger appearing in the MCU - who could forget that fake "leaked" post-credits scene for Avengers: Age of Ultron - but it never seemed likely.
In the mid-2010s, Sony Pictures had its own plans for Spidey, including at least two more movies in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and a Sinister Six project from Drew Goddard.
However, when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed and leaked "Sony Hack" emails revealed that Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal had at least discussed the possibility of a crossover, the decision was made to bring Peter Parker into the MCU.
That happened with 2016's Captain America: Civil War, with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and - following a brief spat which saw the Russo Brothers and Tom Holland get involved - Spider-Man: No Way Home. Since then, a new deal has been reached to extend this partnership.
Despite the massive success of those Spider-Man movies, Sony forged ahead with its own universe inhabited by Venom, Morbius and, in supposedly "standalone" tales, Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter. There have been a couple of box office hits but the rest have failed and all were mostly hated by fans and critics.
Recently, Variety explained that Sony could have used Spider-Man at any time in those movies; the reason that didn't happen is because Venom's success in 2018 gave the studio false confidence and executives were aware fans would reject seeing Spidey in non-MCU projects.
While Sony now intends to shift focus to Spider-Man 4, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, and Spider-Noir, you may have seen chatter on social media about there being plans to use a new version of the wall-crawler in future movies. That appears to be based on comments from Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock who told the trade, "You could hire a different Spider-Man. It doesn’t have to be Tom."
He's not wrong and it's hard to figure out why Ben Reilly, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, or any number of Peter Parker Variants haven't been used in these movies. After all, we'll soon get The Brave and the Bold and The Batman Part II in close proximity to one another and no one was confused by Tom Holland's Peter Parker not factoring into the animated Spider-Verse movies.
Of course, there are two compelling and likely possibilities for Sony moving forward: Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man or, even more likely than that, Andrew Garfield's. Alas, it's impossible to imagine either actor being willing to return without a major improvement in creative (which would surely require Avi Arad's departure).
What do you think? As always, you can let us know your thoughts in the comments section.