"Sony would never have made this deal if they still retained the merchandising rights," said one producer in the comic book field. "Even a poorly performing movie could be saved by strong merchandise sales, and Spider-Man is one of the bigger brands out there."



Among the winners are Pascal and Marvel’s Kevin Feige, who together will produce the next stand-alone Spider-Man for Sony, which will bow July 28, 2017, one year earlier than Sony had planned to bring Peter Parker back to theaters (in July, Sony moved a Spider-Man movie from 2016 to 2018). And though Spider-Man will first appear in an unnamed Marvel movie, Sony and Pascal will have more influence over the actor cast in the iconic role because Sony retains final approval. The studio is currently looking for an actor much younger than 31-year-old Andrew Garfield, who most recently portrayed the superhero, as well as a writer for its reboot.



In addition to Garfield finding himself on the outside of the franchise, director Marc Webb will not be back to complete a third Spider-Man (the studio originally envisioned its Amazing Spider-Man oeuvre as a trilogy with Webb and Garfield aboard for all three). Amazing producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad have been downgraded to executive producers, with no real say in the creative direction of the franchise.

Either way, Sony needed to shake up its Spider-Man franchise, once considered the most robust comic book property in Hollywood but lately showing signs of franchise fatigue with just north of $700 million worldwide for last year’s outing. In fact, the franchise has been on a downward trajectory ever since the five-film franchise reached its height in 2007, with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 earning $891 million worldwide.



Meanwhile, Marvel and Sony are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the Marvel universe into future Spider-Man films. One knowledgeable source sees the move as a first step to Marvel reacquiring the rights to Spider-Man down the road, while another believes Disney is positioning itself to acquire Sony should it ever become available.