Yesterday, Anthony Stokes wrote about why Spider-Man should join the Avengers, and now Thomas Roach writes about why the wall-crawler shouldn’t cross over with the Marvel Cinematic Universe….
There is currently a rumour going round that Sony’s Spider-Man as seen in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to be crossing over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A lot of fans have been asking for this for a while now. Other than the rights issue, which is apparently being worked around, there are other reasons why Sony’s Spider-Man should not cross over to the MCU.
The latest Spider-Man films have proven unpopular in some ways – not at the box office, but some fans have felt let down by the films. It is clear that people like Andrew Garfield as the character, but it is clear that there are very mixed opinions about the franchise. Even Andrew Garfield has come out and bashed The Amazing Spider-Man 2, blaming the studio for having too much interference with the final cut of the movie.
It would seem that Garfield was speaking out of line here, and the studio may be angry with him, hence the rumours about replacing him for a “soft reboot” in The Sinister Six. Either way, I really doubt that after his comments the studio would let Spider-Man be part of the MCU, which would likely boost Garfield and his career. A more likely scenario is that Sony is now willing to sell the rights to Spider-Man back to Marvel Studios, rather than have a collaboration between the two studios. If the rights did return to Marvel then it would be up to them to keep Garfield or reboot. My hunch is that they would reboot.
There was actually a planned Easter egg in The Avengers in which we were going to see OsCorp tower in the background during the invasion of New York. This would have explained why there were so many cranes and builders in The Amazing Spider-Man – they were repairing the damage from the invasion. And it would also explain why Spider-Man is yet to become a part of the Avengers. This is all likely just coincidence but if Marvel did decide to keep Garfield on or do the studio collaboration, the audience already has some very small hint that the characters exist in the same universe.
Marvel has proven that it doesn’t need Spider-Man to have a successful film series. Since Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Studios has been able to deliver films more consistently than any other studio with comic book properties. As Sony’s Spider-Man has underperformed in the eyes of the studio they will want to ride onthe success that Marvel is having. However it would make much more sense for Marvel to reboot the character completely and not incorporate Sony’s Spider-Man into their films.
Overall there has been talk about this for so long with no official confirmation to these rumours, or even any hints or slip ups by the studio that this might be the case. We have to assume that these rumours are false. Even if there is any truth to it, I feel hat the Spider-Man created at Sony would not be suitable for the MCU and a rebooted version would be needed.
How do you feel about Spider-Man joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Would you like to see Andrew Garfield alongside The Avengers? Or would a reboot be required? Let us know your thoughts…
Thomas Roach
Originally published October 8, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
