If rumours are to be believed, Disney is looking to avoid any kind of repeat of this summer’s Spider-Man custody battle with Sony by buying out the movie rights to the iconic Marvel character.
This report comes by way of Geekosity (which according to Yahoo, has a decent track record… but not one that we can verify ourselves), Disney is looking to pay between $4 billion and $5 billion for the rights to the web-slinger, and see him as an “anchor” for the Marvel Cinematic Universe now that Iron Man and Captain America are gone from the franchise post-Avengers: Endgame.
Should there be any truth to this rumour, it means that Disney is potentially willing to spend more to get Spider-Man than it did to acquire the entirety of Marvel Entertainment ($4.24 billion) and Lucasfilm ($4.05 billion).
Of course, with Fantastic Four and X-Men now back at Marvel Studios following Disney’s Fox acquisition, Spider-Man is the only Marvel property which doesn’t fall under its control, and so naturally one would assume that Disney would jump at the chance of a deal. However, given that Sony is working on a slate of Spider-Man spinoff films to follow last year’s Venom – not to mention multiple Spidey-related TV shows – it remains to be seen whether Sony would be willing to give up the web-slinger, particularly when it’s a little short on the franchise front.
Whatever happens, Marvel fans do have at least two more Spider-Man appearances in the MCU to look forward to, with Disney and Sony agreeing an extension on the previous deal which covers a third solo film and an appearance in another Marvel Studios movie.
