Scott Derrickson, the director of Doctor Strange, says that all Spider-Man movies are “de-facto” MCU films.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe might be getting a lot bigger with the introduction of multi-verses and alternate timelines. Recent films have teased such concepts and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will look to delve into the subject more.
Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, while not being an MCU movie, also incorporated these elements but does this have any impact on the live-action movies?
Well, in a Twitter exchange with Moon director Duncan Jones, Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson said that all Spider-Man movies are indeed in the MCU in some sense.
This resulted from Jones using a gif from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to describe his personality. However, the original tweet asked for an MCU gif to be used, which led fans to point out Jones’ error. But because Into the Spider-Verse involves the multiverse, Jones asked Derrickson to weigh in:
“Tangential connections through portals is covered under the Dr Strange subsection. Can i have a ruling, @scottderrickson?”
With Derrickson adding: “All Spider-Man iterations are defacto MCU.”
Tangential connections through portals is covered under the Dr Strange subsection. Can i have a ruling, @scottderrickson?
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) November 23, 2020
However, Derrickson did go on to clarify that he isn’t revealing any big Marvel secret, and was simply having some fun with his fellow director:
I was just kidding around with Duncan. Wasn’t serious at all.
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) November 25, 2020
Nevertheless, with Marvel and Sony working so closely together on Spider-Man, and Marvel Studios’ chief Kevin Feige describing Spidey as “the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes”, is it only a matter of time before we see an official connection established between the MCU and Sony’s own Spider-Man cinematic universe?
We know that The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s Jamie Foxx is returning to the role of Electro for Spider-Man 3, while Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange is also set to appear alongside Tom Holland web-slinger, potentially providing Spidey with a path through the Multiverse/Spider-Verse. And that’s before we get to the rumours – denied by Sony, somewhat unusually – that both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are wanted to reprise their past roles as the web-slinger for the new film, not to mention the constant talk of Holland’s Spider-Man and Tom Hardy’s Venom crossing paths.