Long before Marvel was owned by Disney, worth a billion dollars, the brand was a terrible little publisher trying to make ends meet. At some point nearly 30 years ago, this meant that House of Ideas had to sell or license the film rights to some of its biggest characters. This is how Fox acquired the Fantastic Four and X-Men families before Disney acquired the company. It’s also how Sony was able to acquire the movie rights to Spider-Man and his huge library of characters, an arrangement that still holds to this day.
The thing is, Marvel still publishes Spider-Man comics every month, despite not being able to use the character in Marvel Studios programming without striking a deal with Sony. As a former Marvel attorney tells us, the deal means Sony gets the rights to new characters introduced in the comics, even decades after the deal was first struck.
“I think the concept is that as Spider-Man is whatever appears in publication, it becomes a movie character,” says attorney Paul Sark. “So think of it like there’s a continuity advantage. Comics aren’t static, right? And that’s what fans love about it, right? Things evolve, and story events evolve. So if you come up with this amazing new character in the comic books, I guess That Sony has the right to use it in its films if it is in the Spider-Man family.”
In addition to the Spider-Man movies, Sony branched out and started its own Marvel Characters universe. So far, the outfit has released a pair of poison Massive Clicks and Criticisms (Wimed) Morbius. Dakota Johnson Madame Web Soon-to-be production, Kraven the Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson recently wrapped principal photography.
And in the event that Marvel introduces a new character in the next Spider-Man sitcom, Sony appears free to make a movie about it as the studio sees fit.
Sarker can be heard on his podcast Best Call Pauto, Weekly view covering various aspects of entertainment law. United State , Spider-Man: Homecoming Streaming on Starz while away from home Available on Hulu and No going back home Available for purchase wherever movies are sold.
Where would you like to see the Spidey pop up next? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by Our writer AdamBarnhardt even hit up on Twitter to chat with all things MCU!
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