Spider-Man's future in the MCU up in the air as Sony, Marvel Studios reach stalemate over new deal: Report

The future of Spider-Man on the big screen may be in flux once again. Deadline reports that, after Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures supposedly failed to agree on a new arrangement for the future of the character on film, Marvel Studios and its president, Kevin Feige, will no longer be involved in producing Spider-Man movies.

The news comes after months of talks in which Disney purportedly pressed for a 50-50 co-financing split with Sony, which distributes the Spider-Man films with Feige acting as a producer and key creative partner. According to the report, Sony's representatives were apparently not keen on that offer, particularly since Disney already takes home a significant chunk of merchandising money through Marvel Entertainment.

Supposedly, Sony instead opted for a continuation of the deal that's been in place since Spider-Man's arrival at Marvel Studios was announced back in 2015, in which Feige gets to produce Spidey films for Sony, Sony allows Spider-Man to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Disney gets a 5 percent cut of first-dollar grosses on Spider-Man films. Per Deadline, Disney declined that offer, and now the two studios are at a stalemate. A subsequent report from The Hollywood Reporter reiterates similar claims.

However, sources tell SYFY WIRE that negotiations are ongoing between the two studios, and that the talks are focusing on producer credits for Feige on future films in Sony's Spider-Man universe. Sources also say that Feige has had a hand in movies that didn't expressly bear his producer credit, such as Venom.  

If the studios indeed fail to reach an agreement, however, this means that Feige — the MCU mastermind who worked to bring Spidey under his umbrella in time for Captain America: Civil War — will no longer be attached creatively to any Sony release, and it's being reported that means Spider-Man will no longer be appearing in future MCU installments. The news comes just weeks after Spider-Man: Far From Home, produced by Feige under the Marvel Studios banner, became the highest-grossing Sony Pictures release ever.

So Spider-Man's future is very fuzzy right now. Until the talks between the top brass at the studios got shaky, Feige was reportedly speaking with Sony's Tom Rothman about getting more closely involved in future Spider-Man-adjacent movies starring Sony's Marvel characters, after Feige gave an uncredited assist on Venom. Meanwhile, star Tom Holland and director Jon Watts are reportedly attached to at least two more Spider-Man films, which is no surprise given the cliffhanger posed by the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Now, where and how we see this version of Spider-Man again is more of an open question. An even bigger question is what his world will look like, if it's now detached from the MCU that helped re-launch it.

Sony did not comment on the news. SYFY WIRE has reached out to Disney for comment, and will update this story as we learn more.