Earlier today, we got a great big look at Sony and Marvel’s collaboration on Spider-Man: Homecoming. Now, at CinemaCon 2017, Homecoming producer and former Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal is telling the press that the two studios might not work together again after the already-planned sequel. Whaaa?
Speaking to Cosmic Book News at the event, Pascal—who was still head honcho at Sony Pictures when the deal between Marvel and Sony over Spider-Man was being made—says that the collaboration allowing Spider-Man to appear in Marvel’s shared universe of films could come to an end after Homecoming 2:
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. 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, and I think that was a very rare thing for three companies to do and a very brilliant thing for them to decide to do, because there are only so many stories that you know you can tell again and again and again about Spidey, and this is something that we would never been able to do in any other way. So, it was a very selfless thing that was very smart on the part of all the companies.
Now, this is all ridiculously confusing, especially since despite being a producer on Homecoming, Pascal doesn’t technically speak for Sony any more, even though her production studio has an ongoing deal with them. Likewise, Pascal’s comment could just as easily imply that another deal will have to be made after Homecoming’s sequel—and based on the potential success of Homecoming, that deal could be quite likely.
But it’s also just a bizarrely strange thing to be even sowing the seeds of doubt that Marvel and Sony could be walking away from this version of the character, one that can feature in the likes of Infinity War and beyond, after two movies together. And it’s the same day that a massive piece of marketing for Homecoming came out!
We’ve been hearing over the past week about Sony’s plans for its “Spiderverse,” separate from the universe of Homecoming but laden with Spider-related characters like Venom, or Black Cat and Silver Sable. But why is there suddenly talk that suggests Sony could move on from this Marvel collaboration already—which, for all intents and purposes, seems to be working out pretty well for them so far? What would it even mean if Marvel and Sony no longer decide to work together on this version of Spider-Man? Would he be consigned to guest appearances in Marvel films? Would Sony reboot all over again with their own Spider-Man?
The answer isn’t clear. Which is why Pascal even throwing this out there to the press is just downright weird.