As news, images, and trailers have slowly trickled in regarding the impending release of Captain America: Civil War, one element of the upcoming superhero smack down remains decidedly absent: Spider-Man. Although we’ve seen numerous glimpses of newer characters like Black Panther and the return of General Ross, the web head has not had a single frame of promotional material devoted to his impending introduction. Although we want to believe that this means the film has something incredibly special planned for him, now it seems that it’s simply a matter of business between Marvel and Sony.
Speaking with Collider, Anthony and Joe Russo opened up regarding the notable absence of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man from Civil War's promotional campaign thus far:
The reason why we still won’t talk about [the costume] is that Marvel and Sony still have to work out what uses they have for the character, on a promotional level, on a commercial level. There’s still complications as far as that goes that involves business deals.
So from the sound of things, it’s clear that certain elements of Peter Parker’s world still haven’t completely nailed down yet. Tom Holland’s version of Spidey has been somewhat caught in a vicious tug of war between the two Hollywood giants, creating a fairly high profile debacle. The mere fact that Spider-Man will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe is already an incredible feat; as many of you already know, last year Marvel and Sony engaged in aggressive negotiations to bring him to the big screen next to the Avengers. Despite the fact the Sony somewhat mishandled the character over the last few years, the deal they struck essentially allows Marvel creative control over the character whenever he’s alongside Earth's mightiest heroes, but allows Sony control over the character during his solo adventures.
This sort of spider sharing requires a great deal of coordination between the companies in order to ensure a certain level of character cohesion between his appearances. While many of us are chomping at the bit to finally see Spider-Man in action, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise; the longer we go without seeing an glimpses, the more surprises the film will have in store for us.
Like all things, this whole situation seems to boil down to money and politics. We will bring you more information related to the upcoming premiere of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as it becomes available to us. The character will first appear in Captain American: Civil War, which hits theaters on May 6. He will then go on to appear in his own solo adventure, which will swing into theaters on July 7, 2017.
