Spider-Man might be leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Spider-Man: Homecoming's sequel

Don’t get too used to seeing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man swinging his way through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because there’s a chance he might be leaving the MCU sooner than we’d all like.

As you probably know, Spider-Man: Homecoming is taking place in the MCU because of a deal struck by three companies: Sony Pictures (who owns the cinematic rights to the character), Marvel Studios, and Disney. After Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies ended up being a financial disappointment a few years ago, Sony realized that instead of rebooting the franchise themselves for the third time, the smarter play would be to create a business partnership with the wildly successful Marvel Studios and have future Spider-Man movies be co-productions between the companies. But that deal only lasts so long.

CosmicBookNews caught up with producer Amy Pascal at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and in an interview, she strongly implied that the deal would be over as soon as the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming is completed. “One of the things that I think is so amazing about this experience is that you don’t have studios deciding to work together to make a film very often,” she explained. “In fact it may never happen again, after we do the sequel. Because Sony, and Disney, and Marvel all decided that the right thing to do was to allow Peter Parker and Spider-Man to be in the MCU and to work with the Marvel guys and have them produce this film.” She went on to praise the teamwork involved in getting the deal made, but the most important line in that quote is unquestionably, “It may never happen again, after we do the sequel.”

If that’s true, we’d see Holland show up in the MCU only a few more times: first in Homecoming, then in the next two big Avengers films, and finally in a Homecoming sequel.

But here’s the fascinating part. Just because that sequel might be the end of Spider-Man in the MCU doesn’t mean it’s the end of Tom Holland as the web-slinger. Sony is already hard at work developing movies centered around Spider-Man characters like Venom, Black Cat, and Silver Sable in order to launch its own separate Marvel universe. I’ve been wondering how they were going to make Spider-Man spin-offs without having access to Spider-Man himself, but now we have the answer. Sony appears to know that the deal they have with Disney and Marvel is set to expire, and they’re wisely planning ahead to keep the Spider-Man train running full steam ahead the second that deal runs its course.

Spidey is way too valuable as a property for Sony to simply sell back to Marvel and Disney for good, so barring some sort of crazy extension of the deal, it appears increasingly likely that we’ll be seeing Spider-Man swing out of the MCU and into his own separate web of movies that rest completely under the Sony Pictures umbrella. Cherish Spidey’s interactions with Iron Man while you can, because they may not last for long.

Images: Disney/Marvel/Sony

Ben Pearson
Ben is an entertainment journalist who has written about movies online for nearly a decade. He loves the Fast & Furious franchise, prefers Indiana Jones to Star Wars, and will defend the ending of Lost until his dying day. He shook Bill Murray's hand once (so he's got that going for him, which is nice). Ben lives in Los Angeles with his wife.
Latest in Marvel Movies
She-Hulk on Disney Plus
Tatiana Maslany canceled a Comic Con appearance due to "filming commitments", and it could mean She-Hulk is in the next Avengers movie
Charlie Cox in Daredevil
Daredevil star Charlie Cox says keeping his Spider-Man: No Way Home cameo a secret for two years was a "nightmare"
Avengers: Doomsday directors admit it's a "difficult" movie to make but tease some great Marvel collaborators "old and new"
Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom
The Russo Brothers say Robert Downey Jr. "tried to talk us into" doing another Avengers movie but they "said no" until they heard the pitch for Doomsday: "That story has to be told"
Amanda Seyfried in Mamma Mia!
Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried was offered the role of Gamora in the MCU, but turned it down because she thought Guardians of the Galaxy would be "Marvel's first bomb"
Robert Downey Jr. during the Doctor Doom announcement at Marvel's SDCC 2024 panel
Kevin Feige was behind the decision to bring Robert Downey Jr. in as Doctor Doom, and the conversation was had "a while ago"
Latest in News
Razer Freyja back cushions
Dune: Awakening will launch with full Razer Sensa HD haptics
Seth Rogen in The Studio
New Apple TV show with 97% on Rotten Tomatoes teases all its cameos, including Martin Scorsese and Zac Efron
Giovanni and Mewtwo from Pokemon Destined Rivals
Team Rocket is blasting off again in new Pokemon TCG expansion, Destined Rivals
Animal Well screenshot, captured on PC
After his excellent debut Metroidvania took 7 years, Animal Well's solo dev says his next game shouldn't "take nearly as long"
Screenshots from Tekken: The Board Game teaser trailer
I hope your affairs are in order, because Bandai Namco just dropped Tekken: The Board Game
Tekken 8
Tekken lead Katsuhiro Harada says he's spent decades "mentally preparing" for AI to overtake humans, but it's not happening: "If AI had really advanced, we wouldn't be pouring 10, 20, 30 billion Yen into making games"