With the news that Spider-Man: Homecoming’s first trailer will be hitting the ‘web’ tomorrow, I’m left wondering whether it could turn out to be Marvel’s most important movie to date.
When the news that Marvel and Sony miraculously managed to work out a deal which meant that the two studios could work together on the next Spider-Man film broke, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It sounded completely unbelievable, but it turned out to be true, and now we’re going to see the fruits of their labour in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
This film could mark an important new chapter in Marvel’s history: the moment they managed to work with the studios who bought the movie rights to many of their comic book characters. Marvel were forced to do this back in the late 90s because they were basically broke, and it allowed them to stay afloat for a little while longer. The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer and Deadpool all went to 20th Century Fox.
Sony Pictures picked up the rights to Spider-Man (for only $7 million. Bargain!), and Universal Pictures secured the rights to the Hulk movie franchise, which they then proceeded to SMASH to a pulp. Now Marvel has regained some sort of control over the character, although they still can’t make their own standalone Hulk film without Universal’s permission (sorry Planet Hulk fans).
Yep, this really happened!
Then everything changed when Marvel made Iron Man, and the rest is history. However, since Marvel and Sony were able to come to an agreement which sees them working on Spider-Man: Homecoming together, the gap has now been opened. This could be the beginning of Marvel’s move to take back all the properties that they sold. Imagine what Kevin Feige could do with the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool franchises. It’s just too good to even daydream about.
There’s also the fact that many of the Marvel comic book properties that are owned by other studios are floundering somewhat. X-Men: Apocalypse received mixed to negative reviews, and the less said about the Fantastic Four the better. Deadpool seems to be the only one doing well. Sony Pictures all but ruined the Spider-Man franchise and had to turn to Marvel to help them save it. After Captain America: Civil War, fans are excited at the prospect of seeing more of Tom Holland’s version of the wall-crawler. Could Fox be thinking of doing a similar deal with Marvel?
I’m saving Fox’s ass!
Honestly, if they had any brains, Fox would be wise to broker a similar deal with Marvel. Marvel just seems to have the right formula and the fan’s backing at the moment. Apart from Deadpool, 20th Century Fox are in a bad place when it comes to their comic book movies. We’ll have to wait and see how Spider-Man: Homecoming turns out, but if it ends up blowing us away, it could start a trend. Which is why I’m of the opinion that Spider-Man: Homecoming could very well end up being Marvel’s most important movie to date, because it might help them regain control of all the movie properties they lost back in the 90s.
Thank you very much for your kind words. It really means a lot 🙂