Spider-Man won't be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least not anytime soon. That is according to Sony CEO Tony Vinciquerra, who says the door is closed on a potential return at the moment.
The news of the split between Sony and Disney rocked fans when it broke around two weeks ago and it was hoped that the two parties could come up with an amicable solution to what's now a sad mess. However, that won't be happening in the near future if Vinciquerra is to be believed.
Speaking in an interview with Variety, the CEO stated "for the moment, the door is closed" but added that there's "no ill will" between the two studios and that there is a "long life," something which was probably meant to give us a bit of hope with regards to the web-slinger swinging his way back into the MCU sometime in the future.
As things stand, Spidey will return to Sony-only productions and won't feature alongside any characters from the MCU. Vinciquerra told Variety that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is being "stretched incredibly thin" right now as more properties are being added to the MCU - Fantastic Four and X-Men for example.
The Sony chief said that Feige being a busy man was one of the reasons negotiations between the studios fell through.
"We had a great run with (Feige) on Spider-Man movies," he said. "We tried to see if there’s a way to work it out….the Marvel people are terrific people, we have great respect for them, but on the other hand we have some pretty terrific people of our own. Kevin didn’t do all the work."
Vinciquerra isn't all that concerned about Marvel working on future Spidey movies and reckons Tom Holland's version of the character will be okay outside of the MCU. He pointed to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Amazon Prime's The Boys as proof that Sony knows a few things about superheroes themselves and can run their own universe.
Said universe started up last year with the release of Venom. It will continue to grow, with the likes of Venom 2, Morbius, Nightwatch, Sinister Six, Black Cat and Silver Sable all in production.
"Spider-Man was fine before the event movies, did better with the event movies, and now that we have our own universe, he will play off the other characters as well," Vinciquerra added. "I think we’re pretty capable of doing what we have to do here."
Source: Variety