Over the past few years, it seemed like Spider-Man couldn’t catch a break. While the webslinger had two moderately successful films, Marvel’s premiere superhero had to sit at the sidelines as his Avenger brethren soared in popularity in both the comics and in mainstream culture. But thanks to a deal between Sony and Marvel Studios, responsible for the 2012’s Avengers and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it looks like Spider-Man will finally get to hangout with the Guardians, Captain America and more.
According to Marvel’s website, studio president Kevin Feige is teaming up with Sony Pictures Entertainment to produce a whole new Spider-Man reboot. The history of Spider-Man on the big screen is a convoluted one dating back to the 80’s. Marvel tried to sell the rights to Spider-Man in 1985 and were eventually bought by Sony in 1999.
The Marvel and Sony deal will bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) starting with 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War,” based on the 2006 Marvel comic event of the same name. Following the introduction, Feige and Sony chairwoman Amy Pascal agreed to produce a standalone Spider-Man film that will be later released by Sony in 2017.
There are some fans who are both excited and upset about the deal between Marvel and Sony.
“I’m happy but annoyed that Marvel has to borrow their own character,” said Marvin Holloway of Rochdale, Queens. “But maybe now we’ll get a really good Spider-Man movie”
According to the Latino Review, Marvel is rumored to put Drew Goddard in charge of the reboot. Goddard was originally suppose to direct Sony’s “Sinister Six” spinoff, which was teased at the end of 2014’s “Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
The announcement of the collaboration has the internet buzzing with opinions of not only what actor will play Spider-Man, but who Marvel’s Spider-Man will be. Miles Morales, the half-black half-hispanic teenager who became Spider-Man in the Ultimate comics is one of the more popular options fans are expecting.
Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner) and Logan Lerman (Perks of Being a Wallflower) are both rumored to be in the running to play Peter Parker. Actor/rapper Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) is also rumored to be interested in playing the wall-crawler
In 2002, Sony released a Spider-Man film starring Tobey Maguire playing the titular role. The film grossed $821.7 million in box office. 2 more sequels were released and both did well. In 2012 Sony rebooted the series with “The Amazing Spider-Man” starring Andrew Garfield.
Some fans gave up on Spider-Man after the first three and didn’t give the reboot a chance. “I enjoyed the first three Spider-Man movies,” York College student, Maceo Jackson said. “But I do think that the first one that they made was the better one. The second one was cool but it just didn’t seem to catch my interest as much as the first one did. The third one I wasn’t really feeling at all.”
Some Spider-Man fans remained loyal and continued to support Sony’s reboot.“Even though it didn’t follow the plot of the original movie, I still felt like it had potential,” York college student, Danielle Chisholm said. “It was still pretty good.”
Darian Keller of Rochdale, Queens said “I liked all of the Spider-Man movies, but If I had to choose, I prefer the reboot because it related to the comics more.”
With Marvel and Sony sharing the Spider-Man film rights, it seems that there are only good things in store for the future of the web slinger.
