Big Hero 6 in animation is wholly a Disney property with no real ties to Marvel beyond being based on characters originally published and created by Marvel and Stan Lee (R.I.P.) making his requisite cameos (and even a pretty solid tribute episode in Season 2 in the wake of his death).
The spider is always on the hunt.
Ah, I was working from the assumption that future Spidey movies could not be in the MCU. But if it's just that they could assume the first two movies happened but just no longer make any reference to the MCU or its characters outside of the Spider-Man franchise, that could work.
They'd have to do away with the Iron Spider suit and put him into a Spider-Man costume of his own which would be an improvement as it would be his costume and not Stark's costume for him anymore. In fact, I'd assume there could be no more references to Stark.
But they could get on with Spider-Man's story by introducing Jameson, Pete and Aunt May having financial problems, Pete's feelings and drive because of Uncle Ben's death and so on because it could be about Spider-Man and his story first and foremost instead of being more about the overall MCU.
But, again, it could be somewhat problematic to not be able to have any connection to other events of major significance happening in what is supposed to be the same world.
I wouldn't mind seeing Michael Keaton as the Vulture again but they'd have to ignore that Stark was a major part of his origin. Or maybe just a brief reference that there was someone he used to hate but since that person is dead, it's time to move on.
Power with Girl is better.
Maybe they'll be able to do something interesting with SPIDER-MAN now. That last one was abysmal.
Um... Peter has been very closely tied to Tony Stark in the comics in the main continuity. Tony became a friend and mentor to Peter, and even gave him the Iron Spider suit. It was even a big part of Civil War, where Tony convinced Peter to reveal his identity, and ultimately led to Peter and Tony fighting against each other later on in the series.
I'm serious, can anybody please tell me who the hell is clamoring for a MORBIUS movie? Morbius is a character that, when he came on the cartoon in the 90's, I had no problem switching channels to see what else was on. He hasn't been relevant since the 70's, and the vampire craze of the late 90's- 2000's has pretty much died away. I swear, the only person who wants to see this movie is Jared Leto, and after what he did to the Joker, I have no desire to see him in ANY movie.
I enjoyed what the MCU did with Peter and his cast. I want to see it continue. Sony can stick to animated features as that's the only thing they haven't poisoned.
The major disappointment as a fan is missing out on MCU Spiderman for the next "big event". Whether it is Kang, or Dr. Doom getting to see all our heroes and Marvels biggest Hero Spider man on screen working and fighting together was just joyful in the cinema.
When peter got dusted in Infinity War, the lady next to me was literally inconsolable crying. It meant something. When he showed up in the trailer for Civil War look at some of the youtube reactions. People were going nuts. Because it was finally happening.
My point is fans will miss out in this business decision.
From a business standpoint though. Sony hasn't burned their bridges with this property like Fox had with Xmen and Fantastic Four. Spider man has been rebooted 3 times by Sony and found reasonable to amazing success with all of them.
Even Venom made a ton of money as a "non related spinoff". They could go it alone again. I mean they are taking one of Marvel's best rogue's galleries of villians.
MCU has plenty of characters now they can lift up to superstar status in these films. They don't NEED Spider man in them to keep achieving success. I do thinks Sony NEEDS MCU connection to keep and improve on Far From Home box office though.
But...but...Morbius is a living vampire, living! Totally different from a regular vampire!
*cough*
Yeah, via Spider-Man, Sony has no end of potential characters. Silver Sable, Puma, Cardiac, Black Cat, etc.
But I think Venom demonstrated that they're afraid to stray too far from the source material and have little idea how to adapt when needed. They want a sure thing, whereas Marvel is willing to take (educated) risks.
Until studios learn to make it about the actor as much as the character, they'll come up short.
I don't see how anyone can view this as anything other than Marvel/Disney overstepping their bounds.
A 50/50 split? Why would Sony or anyone ever agree to that? The original agreement was just fine and mutually beneficial to both sides. This reeks of greed on Marvel's part.
Holland is a MCU guy. He works with Feige and RDJ and Favrou are mentors to him. Even if they cut all references to the MCU and Holland contractually can appear in a non MCU Spidey movie. Who knows if he will even want to. It would be hilarious if Marvel uses the Mutiverse to bring Holand in as another character. They can even have a Joke where someone calls him Peter and hes like no my Names Johnny Storm or Bobby Drake. Then they make a joke and move on.
All that said I mean Disney can only make so many movies a year without hurting they're own pockets. So spidey going back means if Sony can get they're shit together we could get more spidey and his own universe.
There was a time when Wolverine was vastly more famous than any of the three characters around which Feige's team built the MCU.Disney has a reason to believe that they don't need Spider-Man. I don't claim they were reasonable in their demands, but I can see why they thought this a time to push for more.
Marvel no more need explain Spider-Man's absence than they did Sif's. We hardcore comic fans might want it, but most wont even feel the speed bump when Daredevil becomes their on-the-street hero and Nova their kid-next-door-with-powers hero. Not saying those are the properties that Disney will use to fill the hole Spider-Man leaves, only that they have ways to fill it, and if the films are good, and the shared-verse well managed, the audience won't object.
From a pure business standpoint Sony did the right thing. Spiderman is and has always been Marvel's best IP with X-Men coming in a close second. 50 percent are you kidding me, who asks for that and expect not to piss someone off?!
While Marvel has had amazing success the past decade, let's face it, they needed spiderman ip. Most of their A,B, & C listed characters are already used up. Black Panther will do well. Fantastic Four ip hasn't resonated with audiences in a long time so I don't think they are rebooting them soon. X-men will be hard as the first iteration was very well received with an amazing cast which as we can see is making it hard for any reboots (as well as crappy writing) and x-men storylines in general are more dark and mature which doesn't fit into the tone of the MCU. In short Spiderman is the gold mine still. Spiderman is consistently in the top 3 list of highest earning superhero properties each year along with batman and superman (dc properties). He is a timeless character who is highly sellable and rebootable. Let's see Marvel try to reboot Iron Man, Captain America, Ant man, or dr. Strange and see if all of those reboots combined are as successful as spiderman 3.
Overall, it's going to be interesting to see what happens because I think Disney/Marvel may look at this and come back to the table with a less offensive offer.
Tom Holland recently stated he wanted to play Spider-Man forever. I don't really see this as changing much from a creative standpoint. All that changes is they can't reference the MCU, Tony Stark, the Snap/Blip, or feature characters from the MCU (such as Happy Hogan, Tony Stark, Nick Fury, etc.). They can still do a successful Spider-Man film that isn't tied to the main MCU. They did just fine with the Raimi films.