Huge news in the world of superheroes. Deadline reports that Disney and Sony have come to a stalemate in regards to Spider-Man and that Marvel Studios, along with its president Kevin Feige, will no longer be producing Spider-Man films.


This comes after Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is being re-released in a few weeks, became Sony’s highest-grossing film of all time.

When contacted by io9, a Sony representative said it’s their belief this dispute is simply over a producer credit and negotiations are ongoing. They further clarified that Feige has contributed to other Spider-centric movies that he did not receive a producer credit on. Other sources tell us the Deadline story is completely accurate. [Update 8/21/2019: Sony has now released an official statement which you can read here.]


The issue, as you’d expect, is money. While Disney was happy to take only a small percentage of grosses on Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home (in exchange for Sony allowing Marvel to use the character in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame), a debate among executives began to take place about the future. According to Deadline, Disney wanted to split profits 50/50 but Sony didn’t even counter that.

Two more Spider-Man films are reportedly in development, with both director Jon Watts and star Tom Holland attached. Plus, Sony has begun its own Spider-Man mini-universe thanks to huge hits like Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, both of which have sequels on the way. Rumor has it, Disney and Marvel were even hoping to help out with those films to further expand the crossover—but in the end, the studios simply asked for more than Sony was willing to give. Apparently, Sony feels it already has the big pieces in place, so the films will be fine without Feige. We’ll see how that goes.

Definitely head over to the Deadline piece to read more of the details but this is certainly a disappointing day for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Potentially removing Spider-Man leaves that tiny asterisk on a world that had just inherited the X-Men and Fantastic Four thanks to the Fox deal. For a brief moment, all of Marvel’s heroes were home. But now, it seems like Sony will make its Spider-Man movies on its own.


This story was updated after publication with additional information.

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