When it was first announced that Sony and Marvel would be partnering up for "Captain America: Civil War," Marvel fans were overjoyed by the news: Everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was finally going to appear on the big screen alongside the Avengers. Spider-Man is, of course, owned by Sony Pictures, while the rest of the Avengers belong to Marvel Studios.
Sony have previously produced two other incarnations of the web-slinger, starring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, respectively. The current Spider-Man is played by 20-year-old British actor Tom Holland, who made his debut as Spider-Man in the aforementioned "Captain America" movie. Holland has since garnered widespread praise for his portrayal of the teenager superhero, and his next appearance as the wall-crawler is being highly anticipated by millions of moviegoers. However, Amy Pascal, producer of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', has recently implied that Spider-Man may leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2019 once Sony's deal with Marvel expires.
Sony producer hints that Spider-Man might swing out of the MCU in 2019
Pascal attended CinemaCon on March 28 in Las Vegas, where she spoke of Spider-Man's possible departure from the MCU. In an interview, which you can watch below, the producer said: "One of the things that I think is so amazing about this experience is that you don’t have studios deciding to work together to make a film very often. In fact, it may never happen again after we do the sequel [to "Spider-Man: Homecoming"]."
This will come as a huge disappointment for many Marvel fans, but they can find some consolation in the fact that Spider-Man will remain in the MCU for at least another 3 movies.
Spider-Man will appear in three more MCU movies
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, Tom Holland confirmed that he was set to appear as Spider-Man for a total of six times: "I'm unclear as to which movies, though. I do know I have 3 Spider-Man [additional] movies and 3 solo movies contracted."
Obviously, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" will be Holland's first solo movie as the web-shooter. We also know that Holland will star in 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War" and with his appearance in "Captain America: Civil War," that'll be three movies already. This means that Holland's Spider-Man will appear in three more films - two of which will be solo movies. One of these solo movies will still be within the MCU, so with the upcoming" Homecoming," Spider-Man will be in the MCU for at least another three films.
It remains to be seen whether Sony will truly decide to pull Spider-Man out of the MCU when their partnership expires in 2019.