Sony and Marvel Studios to Do One More Spider-Man Film

After weeks of negotiations over Peter Parker’s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it looks like Spider-Man is back for one more adventure. ComicBook has confirmed that Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures have agreed to make one final movie that will finish the trilogy that began with Spider-Man: Homecoming, effectively ending the Wall-Crawler’s intro trilogy with the MCU. According to sources, the main cast from the first two films is expected to return for this third and final Spider-Man movie, including Tom Holland, Zendaya, Marissa Tomei, Jacob Battalon, and Jon Favreau, while producers Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige will join director Jon Watts for this final film.

This does not mean that the third Spider-Man movie will be Tom Holland’s last adventure as Peter Parker, according to Sony and Marvel, Peter will have more adventures in the MCU and with Sony. This also allows these characters to continue on in their own franchise separate from the MCU, without having the sudden and jarring disconnect established by events like the Blip from Avengers: Endgame and J. Jonah Jameson’s outing in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

“I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it,” said Feige. “Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.”

Rumblings and rumors have persisted ever since the news first broke that Sony Pictures planned to move on with the Spider-Man franchise without the involvement of Marvel Studios and Disney.

“Peter Parker’s story took a dramatic turn in Far From Home and I could not be happier we will all be working together as we see where his journey goes,” said Pascal. “This has been a winning partnership for the studios, the franchise and the fans and I’m overjoyed it will continue.”

This development proved to be a major disappointment for many fans, especially after Spider-Man: Far From Home seemed to further entrench the character as an important aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward. Sony and Marvel faced an immediate backlash, though Sony appeared to be the target for the bulk of the negative reactions.

Tom Holland himself spoke about the separation shortly after news of the split came out, though he remained hopeful for the future.

“Basically, we’ve made five great movies,” Holland explained. “It’s been five amazing years. I’ve had the time of my life. Who knows what the future holds? But all I know is that I’m going to continue playing Spider-Man and having the time of my life. It’s going to be so fun, however we choose to do it. The future for Spider-Man will be different, but it will be equally as awesome and amazing, and we’ll find new ways to make it even cooler.”

There have been conflicting reports over the exact nature of the split, with different figures and revenue breakdowns being the main source of conflict between the two; Sony themselves seemed to place the blame on Disney by saying that Kevin Feige was too busy to work on future installments in the franchise.

Feige, to his credit, reflected on the opportunity to include Spider-Man in the MCU, even if it was for a short time.

“I’m feeling about Spider-Man gratitude and joy,” Feige explained to Entertainment Weekly. “We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers. It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we’d be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I’ll always be thankful for that.”

Sony, of course, has their own successful series of Spider-Man spinoff movies, with Venom 2 on the horizon as well as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse winning an Academy Award earlier this year.

Sony has yet to announce a release date for the third and final Spider-Man movie co-produced with Marvel Studios.

Disney and Sony declined to comment for this story.