If any of you know me personally, you’ll know just how much I love the “Spider-Man” franchise.
I’ve talked before about the impact that the first movie from 2002 has had on my life, and today I’d like to take a moment and discuss what is currently happening between Marvel and Sony from the perspective of a longtime fanboy.
I grew up watching the Tobey Maguire movies on DVD, and loved every second of them, save for that one weird part of “Spider-Man 3” when Maguire does that “Saturday Night Fever” strut down the street.
Other than that, those movies were awesome.
I can remember hearing that Andrew Garfield was going to be playing a new version of Spider-Man and I got really disappointed, because at that time, the only person that could ever be the wall crawler was Maguire.
But when “The Amazing Spider-Man” came out, I absolutely loved it. It was the first movie that I saw multiple times in theaters.
In retrospect that movie and its sequel are pretty garbage Spider-Man movies, but at the time I was hooked.
After “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” bit off way more than it could chew, the franchise was put on hold for a bit, and that’s when us Spider-Man nerds got the best news possible.
Sony would be teaming up with Marvel to put Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Cue the thunderous applause and elation that filled many movie theaters as we saw the first glimpse of the latest, and in my opinion the greatest, Spider-Man yet played by Tom Holland in “Captain America: Civil War.”
And after “Civil War,” he got a stand-alone movie that rivaled even the best of the Maguire era.
After being put into three more movies, all seemed right in the world until Sony had to renegotiate their deal with Marvel.
When Marvel wouldn’t budge, Sony pulled Spider-Man from the MCU.
I have very mixed emotions regarding this.
On the one hand, Spider-Man won’t be in the interconnected and established Marvel Universe anymore, and therefore can’t interact with any people that are not exclusively Sony property.
On the other hand, he did get a pretty complete arc in the MCU following Tony Stark’s death, and his part in the grand story is kind of over.
Plus, all the actors and actresses we have come to love who are playing characters who are under the sole ownership of Sony will be reprising their roles.
I can’t express in words how thankful I am that Holland will be reprising the role in these continuing movies, because he plays the almost completely different parts of Peter Parker and Spider-Man with such talent that it would be really hard to see anyone else try to fill his shoes.
The distinction between Parker and Spider-Man was something that previous actors had trouble with.
Plus, I really don’t want to see Uncle Ben die for the fourth time in less than two decades.
That may be a bit much.
Overall, I’m disappointed and saddened by Sony’s decision, but I do remain optimistic for the future of the franchise.
Considering just how good of a job that Sony did with “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” I think that the franchise is in pretty good hands. I absolutely loved that movie, and if we see anything like that in live action, I’d be a happy camper.
BENJAMIN HAYLETT
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