There’s a reason why Marvel Studios can’t do whatever it pleases when it comes to using Marvel superheroes in blockbuster movies like the Avengers franchise films and other movies in the MCU. It’s because it doesn’t have the rights to use all of these heroes whenever it pleases. That’s why Deadpool isn’t part of the MCU, and why Spider-Man took its time to arrive in MCU films. The deal for having Spider-Man in the MCU didn’t come without headaches, and you’ve noticed one of its side-effects without realizing it: Spider-Man 2 ruined Avengers: Endgame for Marvel, and also for some of Marvel’s fans.
A Vanity Fair report goes into great detail about Sony’s plans for the Spider-Man franchise now that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has premiered, revealing some of the background dealings between Sony and Marvel.
Back in 2015, Sony and Marvel inked a deal to bring Peter Parker to the MCU, with the superhero being given a role in the third Captain America. After Civil War, Spider-Man appeared in his own joint Marvel-Sony Spider-Man trilogy, and then in Avengers: Infinity War.
Here’s where Sony ruined Marvel’s plans, by insisting on launching Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019. That’s because Spider-Man died in an emotional scene on Titan at the end of Infinity War, since he was one of the superheroes that Thanos turned to dust. By releasing Far From Home in 2019, Sony revealed that Spider-Man will be resurrected and pretty much confirmed that all the characters who died, including many beloved heroes and supporting characters, will also be brought back to life.
We suspected that the Avengers wouldn’t really dead forever soon after Infinity War ended, since many of them will appear in the MCU’s Phase 4. But we knew for sure that Spider-Man would be resurrected thanks to this statement:
What I think we should focus on is this Spider-Man who started in Civil War and then has this [Homecoming] movie, and then will be in the Avengers movie. And we are starting now the next one which will start a few minutes after Avengers 4 wraps as a story.
That was Sony’s Amy Pascal promoting Homecoming back in 2017, the first standalone Spider-Man movie in the MCU. It all happened well-before Infinity War delivered that tremendous cliffhanger.
Since then we found out that Nick Fury and Maria Hill, two other characters who died after the snap, will appear in Far From Home, a movie that takes place after Endgame, chronologically. So yes, they’ll both be resurrected as well.
Vanity Fair doesn’t explain any of these details in the extensive report that focuses on Sony and Pascal’s Spider-Man plans, but does say that Sony’s insistence on having Tom Holland’s Far From Home premiere in 2019 “threw a wrench in Marvel’s preferred degree of secrecy around Avengers: Endgame.”
The first Far From Home trailer should be unveiled soon too, although reports say it won’t happen this week. The movie launches in early July next year, two months after Endgame will tell us how most of our favorite Marvel heroes will be brought back to life.
