Thomas Roach on whether Marvel Studios should give up on Spider-Man…
With the Sony hack we have discovered that there has been talks between Marvel Studios and Sony in order to get the character of Spider-Man to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Marvel developing Captain America: Civil War, it was discussed whether Spider-Man could cameo in the film, albeit a different version from Andrew Garfield’s portrayal. I personally think that Marvel should stop trying to get Spider-Man back and just get on with the properties they do have.
Even if Marvel did get the rights back to the character tomorrow I doubt we would get a Marvel Studios Spider-Man movie until Phase Four, which would be in 2019 at the earliest. Sure the character would be used in Civil War, but it would be a small role and then the character would likely play a supporting role in Avengers: Infinity War. In the last twelve years we have had five Spider-Man movies, including a reboot. If Spider-Man did appear in the MCU it would need to be a rebooted version, but at the same time surely people are sick of rebooted franchises?
Looking back at how The Amazing Spider-Man was handled it really makes you appreciate the Sam Raimi version of the character. Sure people bash Spider-Man 3 but the first two films were absolutely fantastic in my opinion. Sony should have just continued with Raimi directing the films and that was the initial plan. Spider-Man 4 was in development with Tobey Maguire returning. Instead Sony opted for a reboot, and this has really damaged the character. Spider-Man is no longer the face of Marvel anymore because he has been handled so poorly.
Marvel seems to have planned extensively and I would like to think that they would not throw in a character like Spider-Man for the sake of it. Spider-Man is not as popular as he once was. Look at how The Amazing Spider-Man 2 lost out at the box office this year to Guardians of the Galaxy, which was mostly unknown to audiences. I imagine Marvel could to wonders if they had the character back but by not having iconic properties they have been forced to be creative with what they do have.
When the MCU started in 2008 with Iron Man, three of the four most popular properties were at other studios. This is down to opinion, but the top four Marvel properties were supposedly Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk. Marvel only had Hulk and his standalone film did not do so well. Marvel took their B-team and they made it work. They can continue to make it work without Spider-Man and should probably just give up on attempting to get the wall-crawler back and focus on what they do have.
Spider-Man seems so overused right now and another version is not what we need or want. People seem to think that having Spider-Man in the MCU will make it better but that over the next few years we are getting films centred on characters we have never seen before. Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel and The Inhumans will all likely deliver as Guardians of the Galaxy did. These are not the most popular characters but Marvel can make it work.
I would love to see Spider-Man appear in the MCU at some point but personally I would leave it for a bit. If they can get a cameo in Civil War then great, but I don’t want the MCU to become solely focused around Spider-Man which I fear it would become. Marvel started off without Spider-Man and have built one of the most successful brands in Hollywood – they should really let him go for the time being.
Do you think Marvel should continue to pursue the rights to Spider-Man, or should they focus on other characters? Let us know your thoughts…
Thomas Roach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&v=zzYUW1bfw34
Originally published December 14, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
