When the news came out about Sony and Disney/Marvel splitting up over Tom Holland's Spider-Man in the MCU, many fans immediately took Disney's side. That's not too surprising when you consider the MCU is part of Disney's turf -- and Disney keeps Peter Parker with his Avengers and Guardians friends. Many fans just see Sony as a background player in Holland's Spider-Man movies. An intruder in the happy family, even.
But what's "weird" to Spider-Man screenwriter David Koepp is the passion with which fans are defending Disney -- as if Disney is the "plucky underdog" who needs defending from a nefarious villain. As he noted, that's far from the case.
David Koepp isn't completely objective in this, since he wrote the script for the 2002 Spider-Man movie that launched Tobey Maguire's trilogy for Columbia/Sony. During a new interview with Den of Geek, the Jurassic Park screenwriter gave an Indiana Jones 5 update, and he was asked if he was keeping up with the news on the Disney/Sony Spider-Man split.
David Koepp's answer gave a shout-out to Sony's animated Oscar winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and shaded Marvel Cinematic Universe fans for their overboard defense of Disney:
I’ve read a few articles about it, yes. I understand both sides. Disney wants what it wants, and obviously it’s used to acquiring and controlling. But I understand Sony’s point of view better: 'But wait, it’s ours. We own it. You can’t just have half of it. You can’t just take it.' So it’s a tough situation. And I think certainly the last couple of Spider-Man movies have been terrific. But the animated film that they did without Disney’s involvement was, you know, even more terrific. What’s weird to me is those Marvel movie fans who are quick to spring to Disney’s defense like they’re a plucky underdog who needs to be defended. [laughs] They are not a plucky underdog.
Yeah, Disney is the farthest thing from an underdog. But fans just want Spider-Man to stay in the same cinematic universe as Mr. Stark and the Avengers, etc., and defending Disney may look like the best way to be Team MCU. However, if fans were more critical of Disney, maybe Disney/Marvel Studios wouldn't be able to make huge demands and then step back -- knowing Marvel fans would do a lot of very public arguing for them.
Both Disney and Sony have valid arguments to make over the joint use of Spider-Man. Fans don't have all of the information from negotiations (neither does David Koepp) but it's common to see movie viewers sharing reasoned arguments for why X made the bigger mistake.
If you ask Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo -- who is openly Team Disney/Marvel -- Sony made a "tragic mistake" to let Spider-Man leave the care of Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige. Sony's CEO has said the door is closed for now, arguing "Kevin didn't do all the work" to make Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies a success.
Kevin Feige said he knew this Sony partnership wasn't meant to last forever, and apparently it was fraught from the start. Tom Holland still plans to continue playing Spider-Man and he has high hopes that his movies can get even better from here.
We'll have to wait and see what happens next, but we know Sony's Marvel Universe has Venom on the calendar for October 2, 2020. Keep up with everything heading to the big screen next year with our 2020 movie release date schedule.
