SPIDER-MAN: System Hacks Reveal Sony Wanted to Work With Marvel Studios, But What They Should Really Do Is Sell



Some interesting information has been revealed over the past few days about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and his future with Sony Pictures. This has all come from someone (or some group) hacking Sony's corporate system which has revealed some past and future details about their plans for their Spider-Man movie franchise. The majority of this info has been reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Here's what was initially revealed from these computer hacks on Sony.

"Sony Pictures president Doug Belgrad tells [Sony Co-Chair] Ms. [Amy] Pascal about a potential scenario that would see Marvel [Studios] produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man movies while Sony retains 'creative control, marketing and distribution.'"

Sadly, these talks broke down before Marvel Studios announced their Phase 3 slate of films. This report also detailed how Spider-Man was initially wanted by Marvel to show up in Captain America: Civil War. Black Panther reportedly took over the role that Spider-Man would have played in Civil War after talks between the two studios fell through.

What is strange about this report is that Disney does not like to bring other studios into their sandbox to play. Regardless of how these two studios might be getting along together, Disney likes to own all their franchises in-house so they can make all of the money and not share any profits with others. 

However, the website Latino-Review claims (cue the grain of salt comments) that Spider-Man could still be introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe sometime down the road because Sony executives in Japan still want to work with Marvel/Disney. 

"Sony Japan thinks the Marvel [Studios] deal for Spider-Man is still on the table and they want to renegotiate as a return to quality, the 60/40 split... can be negotiated and Sony Entertainment’s October hard-line stance of wanting creative control is now mostly moot in the eyes of the higher-ups."

Again, it would be shocking for Disney to allow Marvel Studios to take this deal unless they can make the majority of the profits off of any 'partnered' Spider-Man movie and/or appearances in the MCU. Even though the alleged '60/40 split' would give Disney/Marvel the majority of the profits, it seems much more plausible for Disney to just buy back all the franchise rights from Sony Pictures (although this was not reported in the hacks and is just in the opinion of The Daily SuperHero).

So what does all of this mean?

It's seems simple enough to say that Sony Pictures has zero clue on what to do with Spider-Man. Which is a damn shame because Spider-Man has one of the biggest fan bases in all of comic book history and Spider-Man was the biggest name associated with Marvel Entertainment. Not so much anymore now that Iron Man and The Avengers are now characters who are more associated with Marvel Entertainment than Spider-Man. This is why Disney/Marvel should just consider opening their wallet to acquire all the Spider-Man franchise rights back (again, this is my opinion and the opinion of everyone else, not factual).

As of right now, Sony and Disney/Marvel are not working together and Sony is moving forward trying to figure out their own plan for Spider-Man. (Grunts and moans here.) It is also being reported how Sony will have a 'Spider-Man Summit' meeting with executives in January 2015 to figure out what to do with the franchise. Seems like Sony is not sure whether they really are moving forward with a Sinister Six movie, a rumored Venom-Carnage film, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and a newly revealed (via the hacks) animated Spider-Man movie by those who helmed The LEGO Movie.

Stay tuned because January 2015 is right around the corner and hopefully Sony figures out their Spider-Man dilemma and announces their plans. Or maybe Sony executives decide to sell now before they lose any more money by having subpar Spidey films and announce they're selling Spidey back to Disney/Marvel. Fans need to cross their fingers for the latter because that is such an outlier of possibility but nothing is impossible since Sony, generally speaking as a company, have been financially hurting for years and years now.



To read more about Spider-Man, click right here.