Did The Good Place Predict Sony and Marvel's Spider-Man Fallout?

It seems like just about anytime something seemingly crazy happens in the world, like the Chicago Cubs winning the world series or Disney purchasing Fox, it was somehow "predicted" years ago on an episode of The Simpsons. The beloved animation has long been a bit of a fortune-teller for the future of pop culture, but it looks as though the series might be passing the baton to another prophetic comedy.

NBC's The Good Place previously predicted that the Jacksonville Jaguars would somehow be relevant, which shocked the entire world when it turned out to be true, and now it the series may have just done it again. In the fourth episode of The Good Place Season 3, titled "Jeremy Bearimy," Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) notes that the perfect world would be one where there were no more Spider-Man movies. While Season 3 just landed on Netflix earlier this month, the episode originally aired on NBC back in 2018, nearly a year before Sony and Marvel Studios split over the Spider-Man film rights.

When complaining to a random bartender about how people as whole should operate, Eleanor begins laying out her rules for an ideal society, since the bartender tells her "there has to be rules." Her first rule is that she gets to do whatever she wants and that everyone has to deal with it, which is pretty on-par for Eleanor. However, she then uses her second rule to completely ban the production of Spider-Man movies.

"Rule number two: No more Spider-Man movies," she says. "There's way too many Spider-Man movies. Too many dorky, little, twerpy Spider-Men."

This is obviously a little bit different that what is currently happening in the real world surrounding Spider-Man. There are going to be more Spider-Man movies; there's no way that will ever change. As long as people are alive there will be Spider-Man movies. But there may not be any more Spider-Man movies set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there's a good chance that the ones that Sony does produce in the near future will look a lot different than those with Kevin Feige's fingerprints.

This isn't anywhere near the death of Spider-Man movies, but it is the end of an era for Spider-Man. That's close enough to the point, right?

The first three seasons of The Good Place are currently streaming on Netflix and Season 4 premieres on NBC September 26th.