Is Marvel Making A Play To Re-Acquire Spiderman Rights?

Well now, things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe could be getting a heck of a lot more interesting if this pans out. According to a recent post from HitFix, there are whispers about Marvel trying to regain control of the Spiderman franchise. While this would be unbelievably awesome on one end, it’s also highly unlikely given just how much the Spidey franchise pulls in for Sony. It’s quite simple to see how both companies would benefit from this deal, but cash is king, and Sony would want a crap-ton of it to let go of Spiderman.

So what could happen? What exactly could we see if any sort of deal were struck between Marvel and Sony? For starters, the most likely scenario in all this would be some sort of licensing deal between them. In this scenario, Marvel would be able to use Spiderman in some of their film franchises (say Marvel Civil War, The Secret Wars, or even an Avengers flick), and in exchange, Sony would gain a dual film credit along with a heaping pile of cash from Marvel. In addition, Sony would still be able to control exactly what capacity their Spiderman would appear, and they’d also be able to control their Spiderman. In this sense, if Sony wanted current web-slinger Andrew Garfield to continue to play Spidey in a Marvel crossover movie, then so be it. If a deal were to be struck between the two companies this is what I would assume to be the most likely scenario.

In the least likely but most awesome scenario, we could potentially see Sony sell the rights of the Spiderman franchise back to Marvel. This would give Marvel complete and total control of the house that Stan built, in exchange for nothing short of a very large fortune and some sort of Sony exclusivity within the franchise. For example, Marvel regains the Spiderman franchise after donating about a billion dollars and Playstation exclusivity for all future Spiderman video games. Just a shot in the dark, but hey…. stranger things could happen. One would ask, why would Sony want to sell off one of their most profitable franchises, and the answer is actually fairly clear. Although Sony is making tons of money from this franchise, the second installment of The Amazing Spiderman franchise grossed about $50 Million less than the original. What’s even more important though, is the fact that the film was critically panned, despite making a ton of money. Sound familiar? It should, it’s basically the same story of the ill-fated Sam Raimi led Spiderman franchise pre-reboot, also produced by Sony. The most logical question here is: How many more turds can Sony produce before people genuinely start to lose interest completely in this franchise.

Either way, I’d love to see more Marvel involvement within the Spiderman Universe, as the Big Apple web-slinger was one of my favorite comics coming up. In addition, we’re also staring down the imminent release of a Venom and Sinister Six spinoff franchise, and if Paul Giamatti in a giant Mecha-Rhino suit is anybody’s manifestation of a good idea then we’re all doomed.

What would you like to see happen? How would you pull off this deal? Sound off in the comments below: