When it was announced last year that Marvel and Sony will collaborate on Spider-Man’s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they wasted no time scheduling the Wall-Crawler’s first appearances. After first showing up in this May’s Captain America: Civil War, Spidey’s solo movie was set for July 28, 2017, causing Marvel to shift around some of their other Phase 3 releases. Following on the heels of Star Wars: Episode VIII and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales being rescheduled, now there’s word that the Spider-Man's release date has also changed, but fortunately it will be here sooner rather than later.
It was announced today that the MCU Spider-Man reboot will now swing into theaters on July 7, 2017, a date previously occupied by the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film. This will pit the Web-Slinger against 20th Century Fox’s War for the Planet of the Apes that weekend. Given how Sony is working closely on Spidey’s next adventure, it makes sense that they would take advantage of their relationship with Disney to secure a prime spot for the Spider-Man movie a couple weeks early. Because of this change, Variety also reports that Sony has moved the Jumanji reboot to Spidey’s old spot, i.e. July 28 of the same year.
This isn’t the most recent instance of Marvel moving one of their movies to an earlier release date. Black Panther, which had been moved to July 6, 2018 following the addition of the Spider-Man movie, was rescheduled for February 16, 2018 following Marvel’s announcement of Ant-Man and the Wasp. Those few weeks may not make that much difference to casual moviegoers, but for comic book fans, seeing the movie earlier means they get to praise/critique/debate it for almost all of July rather than just at the end of it.
John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein are writing the new Spider-Man, while Cop Car’s Jon Watts will direct. Cast-wise, Tom Holland will reprise his role as Peter Parker, and Marisa Tomei will play Aunt May. While no plot details have been revealed, what’s clear is we’ll see Peter Parker continue his crimefighting career as he also deals with the struggles of high school and being a social outcast. Fittingly, Watts described the movie as a "coming of age" tale, though there will still be plenty of humor.
If the reboot and Captain America: Civil War aren’t enough Spidey goodness for you, Sony is also coming out with an animated Spider-Man movie, though that was pushed back to December 21, 2018 last month. While we wait for these features, make sure to let us know if you’re pleased with the release date change in the comments below.
