Students react to Spider-Man leaving the MCU
Superhero favorites are vanishing from the MCU again, except this time, Thanos is not to blame.
On August 20, Sony released a statement announcing a split with Disney after the two companies failed to reach an agreement over future Spider-Man movies and appearances. This means the fan-favorite web-slinger can no longer be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This controversial decision has brought about a plethora of fiery and passionate opinions from Marvel fans at Utah State University.
“I think it’s a bunch of corporate nonsense,” Eryn Hanson, biochemical engineering major, said. “If people really cared about what the public wanted, this wouldn’t even be an issue. But conglomerates like that only care about making the most money. I think it’s stupid.”
The original deal between Disney and Sony set in 2015 agreed that, for movies featuring Spider-Man, Sony would finance the movie and make 95% of the first-dollar gross profit, while Disney got the remaining 5% and all of the merchandising revenue.
When the time came to create a new agreement in August, Disney proposed a 50/50 co-financing deal. This means that, while they would help finance 50% of the Spider-Man movies, they would also make 50% of the profit. Sony wanted to leave the deal as it was, according to a Deadline report, and in the end, the companies withdrew their partnership and therefore, Spider-Man from the MCU.
Irene Van Horn, an international business major, was angry when she first heard about the news. While there was a lot of anger directed toward Sony, she realized Disney deserved some of the blame.
“Sony didn’t make money off of any of the Avengers movies Spider-Man was in, nor as much money as they could have on the stand-alone Spider-Man movies,” Van Horn said. “So Sony was just exercising their right as owners over the Spider-Man character to take back their character.”
When Sony released its statement announcing the split, there was a huge public backlash on social media, with #cancelsony and #savespiderman trending for days. But as more and more people looked into it, the negative views toward Sony began to change, with the negativity largely turning to Disney, as well.
“I think Disney deserves it, but Sony also deserves it just as much, because neither of them were willing to come to an agreement for the sake of art and for the sake of pleasing their fans,” Tyler Monson, journalism and communication major, said. “The enemy of all is corporate greed. Yes, Disney is greedy for asking for more money on the Spider-Man movies, but they’re also writing and directing and casting and doing everything on the work for the movies. Sony’s just paying for them.”
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland has agreed to continue his contract and play Spider-Man for additional movies even though his character can no longer be in the MCU. Many fans like Monson fear what this could mean for future Spider-Man movies now that such a major character arc has been taken away.
“The only option Sony has is to do a prequel movie, but I don’t know how they’re going to do that after the cliffhanger that we left off on,” Monson said. “While we’re sick of the Spider-Man origin story, I would watch the Tom Holland solo movie because he doesn’t have anything to do with the MCU until Civil War. He was already Spider-Man before that.”
Much of the public is still hopeful that Disney and Sony will reach an agreement soon, given all the public backlash. One example of this is www.isspidermanbackinthemcuyet.com, a website created by a fan to keep others updated on any possible developments.
If they don’t bring him back because of angry fans, students like Stefani McMullin, a social work major, hope they’ll at least bring him back for the money.
“I’m not so naive as to believe that these movies are being made for the public, but rather they are being made for the profit,” McMullin said. “But as a member of the public, I want Spider-Man, dang it!”
—nichole.bresee@aggiemail.usu.edu
@breseenichole