It’s a modern movie love story. Studio loves Spider-Man. Spider-Man gets makeover and seriously under performs. Studio falls out of love with Spider-Man. New studio gets involved. Now original studio is in love with Spider-Man all over again.
That is the simplest way to break down the relationship between Sony Pictures and Spider-Man. When Sam Rami was directing the original trilogy, things couldn’t have been better (well… expect the third part!). When Spider-Man became “Amazing”… Sony and fans both lost interest. Enter Marvel, who gave the character a much needed boost of energy. Now Sony couldn’t be happier with their potential billion dollar franchise.
IGN caught up with Sony Pictures Chairman Tom Rothman on the red carpet for the Ghostbusters reboot. While they had his attention, the topic turned to next year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Rothman had no problems gushing about the collaboration with Marvel.
“Here’s the thing I can tell you: we’re really, really fortunate on this because Marvel and Kevin Feige have really embraced the character, and nobody knows it as well as Marvel. It is another crown jewel of Sony’s for sure.”
Rothman also went on to praise the new incarnation of Pater Parker, calling Tom Holland “fantastic.” He goes on to say that Holland perfectly captures the essence of the character as someone who can both save the world, and finish his chemistry homework on time. It appears Rothman and the rest of Sony Pictures will be taking down their pictures of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
Spider-Man’s entrance into the MCU is a major stepping-stone for Marvel Studios. Bringing the character into the fold can allow The Avenger-based phases to continue, even as other characters like Iron Man and Captain America begin to fade out. In fact, the return of Peter Parker is something both studios are celebrating thanks to the double entendre expressed in the name of the next Spider-Man flick.
“It’s relevant to the story because it takes place in high school and there is a scene, that I guess I can give a little thing, at a homecoming dance. I’ve actually seen the dailies of it because we already did the high school shooting of it in the first couple weeks. It’s fantastic! But it’s also a homecoming to Marvel. And a homecoming to the cinematic universe that Spider-Man belongs in. So it’s a pretty unprecedented deal between two studios, but we’re really proud of it. And all I can tell you is, those guys at Marvel — I think the technical term is — they know their s**t.”
Keep your fingers crossed that later this month at Comic-Con, some sort of Spider-Man: Homecoming material shows up. Even if Marvel relies on clips from their other properties (Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be showing up for sure), Spider-Man has done a great job keeping fans’ attentions thanks to social media. Let’s hope for more little tidbits like these prior to Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s release on July 7th, 2017.
