BREAKING: Marvel & Sony Announce Agreement to Share SPIDER-MAN

It was a rumor that was confirmed by a set of leaked e-mails. Now it has finally become officially. Marvel has Spider-Man back. Well, at least a share of him back.

Marvel.com broke the news that Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures have entered into an agreement to “bring Marvel Studios into the world of Spider-Man,” as the press release puts it.

What this means that sometime between now and July of 2017, Spider-Man will be appearing in a Marvel Studios film. Sony will then release their next Spider-Man film on July 28, 2017. That film will be co-produced former Sony head Amy Pascal, Kevin Feige, and Marvel. There is a chance that members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be appearing in that film as well. Sony will finance, distribute and own the film, and have final creative say.

The press release calls this a new creative direction for the hero. As anyone who has read the leaked Sony e-mails knows, Marvel wants a teen aged Spider-Man to work with. Reading between the lines, you can probably call the Andrew Garfield era of Spider-Man over, since Garfield, at 31, is starting to get way too old to play a teen.

The Sony e-mails made it clear that Marvel wanted Spidey for Captain America: Civil War. Whether this remains true or not, or we will see Spidey in another Marvel film down the line, is something that we will surely find out as the days and weeks pass.

This seems like a win-win for Sony. They get Marvel, the studios that made a hit out of a talking raccoon and tree tandem, to work their magic on Spider-Man, and they get keep of the profits. While I didn’t think the Garfield-era was as bad as most people thought it was (although I will say it was frustratingly flawed), Spider-Man is a character that deserves to be done right. Now it might finally be done right.

Now, if only we can have a little bit of Glasnost between Fox and Marvel for a similar arrangement to be made, I’d be a happy Comic Book Movie Editor!