Spider-Man: Disney And Sony Executives Hopeful That Current Movie Deal Will Keep Going

In 2019, despite Spider-Man: Far From Home becoming the first dedicated Spider-Man movie to gross over $1 billion, the film franchise's history was briefly in doubt. A dispute between Disney and Sony nearly meant that Tom Holland's take on the character was almost removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and while the character still would have received another film, it would have no longer addressed the wider Marvel world, beyond, potentially, the characters Sony owns the rights to (such as Venom and Morbius).

However, a deal was eventually struck, and Spider-Man will return for another MCU film on July 16, 2021. This new deal--which, as before, stipulates that there must be a new dedicated Spider-Man movie every two years--only covers one more dedicated Spider-Man film and the character's appearance as part of a team in one other movie.

Now, in a videoed roundtable chat with The Hollywood Reporter (as picked up on by Syfy), Sony executive Tom Rothman and Disney executive Alan Horn have talked about what happened with Spidey, and delicately touched on their hope that the deal will continue.

Rothman says that the news cycle around the dispute churned things up further, saying "I think we would have gotten there. The news got ahead of some things." At the same time, the outpouring of fan support helped matters, according to Horn. "The fanbase, which is important to all of us, seemed to really respond to what Tom and his folks had done before with our people," he said. "We heard feedback out there that suggested joining forces once again was probably really a good idea."

Asked if they believed the relationship keeping Spider-Man in the MCU would continue, Horn responded "I hope so," noting that it was "a classic win, win, win" for Sony, Disney, and fans.

The full discussion is below.

Tom Holland has so far played the character in five films between 2016 and 2019: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers, Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The next Marvel movie is Black Widow, which arrives in cinemas on May 1, 2020.