I do, myself — but mostly in the context of how they’re eventually going to settle up. …Did I write about this? Oh, right, only on Twitter. Short version is that Disney wants a lot more money out of the Spider-Man/MCU synergy thing, and Sony doesn’t want to give them any. Hard to fault either of ’em, really. Disney did a lot of the heavy lifting for Sony’s product*, but Sony’s product is pretty damned good and Disney has a reputation for being a kind of aggressive black hole when it comes to revenue.
Anyway, they’re now in the stage where they loudly break things off, and see who takes more of a PR hit from the breakup. I figure that Sony will try to seriously hold Disney to getting 20% or 25%, instead of the 5% that the Mouse is getting now. Since Disney was asking for 50%, that may even be doable. Or, you know, they could blow the whole thing up, because the MCU is already a low-probability success story and it’s overdue for a reversion to the Hollywood mean. Can’t complain, though: even if I don’t get a non-sucky Fantastic Four movie out of this I still got my money’s worth.
But, still. Guys. Work this all out.
Moe Lane
*Not meant in an insulting way.
I think Sony’s got the advantage here. Tony Stark was the character connecting Spidey and the MCU. And, well…
If you’re watching a Spider-man movie, you’re not going to care that Falcon isn’t making an appearance. But if you’re watching an MCU “call all the heroes” movie, you might wonder why Spider-man didn’t show up.
Watching the Midnight’s Edge video about this, Disney seemed to be asking not just for 50% of the money, but for effective creative control over the Venomverse, as well.
I agree. Disney was trying to strongarm Sony into a position where they could effectively coopt the “real” Spiderverse characters back into the MCU. Sony, rightly, understands that once it gives up the real MJ, Venom, Gwen Stacy, etc. It has nothing but a shell and perhaps the leftovers in the toy revenue stream.
OTOH, if they are able to bring Spiderman back into his own universe, and make an authentic Spidey movie that people want to see, then suddenly the MCU takes a big hit.
Not to mention, Phase IV isn’t exactly making people tingle with anticipation. Black Widow is 10 yrs too late. The Eternals? Umm, yeah. Doctor Strange is the only one I’m inclined to see at this point. And even that has got me concerned. Because I suspect Scarlet Witch is going to upstage Dr Strange in his own movie.
Gonna be honest: I like Benedict Cumberbatch just fine, but if you’re giving me a choice between seeing more of him in a movie and Elizabeth Olsen, I’m gonna go with Elizabeth.
And I’m fine with more Elizabeth Olsen. And the Scarlet Witch as a character. I just want Dr Strange to star in his own movie. But I’m still going to see it. And if Scarlet Witch got her own movie, I’m pretty sure I’d see that too. More than I would some of the other movies on the Phase 4 slate, at least.
Roger that.
Not really sure what you guys are seeing in Scarlet Witch, for me she’s probably the least interesting character in the Avengers lineup.
.
It also probably doesn’t help that I din’t sense any actual chemistry between SW and Vision.
The problem is that Sony taking back complete control of Spiderman puts him in the hands of Amy Pascal, who has already ruined Spiderman once before and was responsible for that 2016 Ghostbusters… thing. She’ll probably be able to out-woke Disney and Marvel without too much effort on her part.
On the one hand, Sony’s good Spider-Man movies since 2004 consists of Spider-verse and the MCU stuff. Disney can certainly make the case that they’re bringing the Midas touch right now.
.
On the other hand, I agree with Moe that the MCU is due for a regression to the mean (I think Certain Actors retiring from the franchise is going to hurt a lot going forward)