The Spider-Man No Way Home trailer has me thinking of ways both Sony and Marvel can have their cake and eat it too.
Those unaware, the Spider-Man movie rights currently belong to Sony. Back in the late 90s, Marvel found themselves needing to overcome a few financial hardships. And one idea was to sell a few of their character’s movie rights to different movie studios. Fox bought and owned Fantastic Four and the X-MEN universe until Disney bought Fox. And Sony owned the Spider-Man universe. But after the Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn’t do as well as Sony hoped, they arranged a deal with Disney to allow Marvel to use Spider-Man in their universe. So how can Sony and Marvel continue this collaboration while still allowing both studios to enjoy creative freedom?
The Spider-Man No Way Home trailer showed Spider-Man having to deal with multiple universes, something brought up in Loki. This sets up future possibilities for the character and one would be they both having their own Spiderman. With Miles Morales picking up traction, thanks to Into the Spiderverse and the Miles Morales PlayStation game, Sony could build their universe around that Spiderman.
I know Peter Parker Spiderman is the more popular Spiderman, but with the history surrounding that character, it can lead to a lot of scrutiny around that character, especially if the portrayal of that character feels totally different from what’s been shown on screen, animation, and in comics. But with the Miles Morales character, Sony can be free to play around with that story element and character. Changing the character to fit the story they are wanting to tell. And unlike the Peter Parker Spiderman, a lot of people are not as familiar with Miles Morales outside of what they saw from Into the Spiderverse. This means Sony can take a few liberties with the character and try different things. And still, allow Marvel to continue their universe where it can enhance Sony’s universe, but not prevent it from being able to sprout wings of its own.
With Sony having Morbius and Venom going, you know they are itching to continue trying to build out their universe around the Spiderman character. But they do not want to interfere with the success Marvel is having. Especially since that success is not only helping Sony make money, but help create excitement to check out their universe of villain and anti-hero characters that is being allowed to be flushed out. I do hope we can continue seeing Sony and Disney able to play in the sandbox together while still being able to create their unique universes.