Sony Pictures Hack Reveals Discussions with Marvel For Spider-Man to Appear in 'Captain America: Civil War'

As most of you must know by now, Sony Pictures was victim of a hack that has led to leaks that included unreleased films, company e-mails, private information about employees and more. Information keeps being released as it surfaces, and the newest information involves Sony with Marvel. Sony Pictures has been rethinking the future of the Spider-Man film franchise after the disappointing results of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and according to the reports coming from the e-mail leaks, Sony discussed with Marvel the possibility of including Spider-Man in their films, having Marvel produce a Spider-Man trilogy, and that Sony is also developing an animated Spider-Man comedy.

All the information comes from The Wall Street Journal, who has gone through the e-mails shared between the studios discussing all the possibilities. The article points out that in some e-mails there where discussions inside Sony about a possible scenario where Marvel would produce a new Spider-Man trilogy with Sony retaining “creative control, marketing and distribution.” Other emails revealed that Marvel was fond of the idea to include Spider-Man in their upcoming Captain America: Civil War. Sony is also apparently in development of an animated Spider-Man comedy in the hands of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie). Talks between Sony and Marvel eventually ended without any agreement, so Sony decided to go ahead with their own Spider-Man film lineup that includes spin-offs like Venom, Sinister Six, and a film focused on a female character. The studio had reportedly also planned a meeting in January to further discuss the future plans for the franchise.

The circumstances of the release of this information are unfortunate to say the least, it would have been better to find out about things like this in a way other than through the violation of privacy but now that the information is out there I have to talk about it, and let's face it, the general public most likely wouldn't have known about this otherwise. This information is very interesting, rumors had been going around for a while about Spider-Man, talking about the possibility of the return of the character to Marvel Studios and about talks between the studios. Some people thought it might happen, others didn't, I wasn't sure if I should believe it or not, but apparently the rumors were true to some extent. The possibility that Spider-Man could appear in Civil War is incredible, there is no plan for that to happen and it probably won't but knowing that discussions took place is great and opens up other possibilities. Having Marvel produce a Spider-Man trilogy would be a great idea, but the studio is so invested in their own long-term plans that I doubt they would even consider it, at least not for the near future. I also like the idea of Lord and Miller developing an animated Spider-Man comedy, the character lends itself well for comedy and they have done great in animated comedies with The LEGO Movie and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This is a lot of information and a lot of plans, we will have to wait and see what Sony will end up doing with their Spider-Man franchise.