Why Spider-Man Might Never Be On Disney+ Now | Screen Rant
With Sony Pictures signing a new exclusive distribution deal with Netflix, the Marvel collection on Disney+ will be missing Spider-Man for the foreseeable future. Although Marvel Studios has participated in the creation of the movie series beginning with Spider-Man: Homecoming, cinematic rights to the character have remained with Sony - including the right to determine distribution. Although this deal was determined between Marvel and Sony prior to the Disney buy-out of Marvel properties, the distribution rights remained with Sony, which has caused some friction between the companies in terms of determining the cross-over of properties.
With Sony signing this exclusive streaming distribution deal with Netflix, future Marvel projects will still feature Spider-Man but with solo films unavailable on Disney+. With Spider-Man: No Way Home due out in theatres in December of 2021, this will be a big step toward Netflix retaining a streaming market share. The film could explore the MCU Multiverse and threaten an end for Mary Jane, as well as potentially impacting later projects in the MCU. Having that gap in Disney+ will be significant, and Marvel and Sony have squabbled over similar rights issues before, threatening future projects with Spider-Man in the shared Marvel universe.
Since Netflix has the rights to distribute or first rights to refusal on future Spider-Man projects, it means that until this deal expires, Disney+ will have a hole in its Marvel collection. With Netflix threatened by the successful rollout of Disney+, having this deal with Sony helps them to keep their significance as a streaming platform - and the fact that they have a piece of the Marvel pie means that anyone wanting to watch all of the Marvel movies in order will have to hop platforms to do so. With Spider-Man set photos suggesting the Avengers are active in the upcoming No Way Home, it seems almost certain that Disney wants to keep Spider-Man as a going concern in their shared movie universe.
While Disney has made audacious deals before in an effort to build and maintain their base of intellectual properties, it would likely take a substantial sum of money - possibly more than would be realized by doing so - to get Sony or Netflix to waver on this new deal. When the current deal lapses, a prospect at least a few years away at this point, it stands to reason that Netflix will do whatever it can to renew it, a desirable position for Sony to hold. Unless Sony transfers the IP rights of Spider-Man as depicted in film over to Disney, it is unlikely that Disney+ will be streaming any of the Spider-films for the foreseeable future.
It might be that Spider-Man ends up leading the Young Avengers - but not in his own movies, and not on Disney+. Spider-Man can be in Disney-owned films, and appear on Disney+ - his scenes in Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: Civil War aren't going anywhere - but the Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Toby Maguire films were all produced by Sony and fall under these distribution rules. While it seems likely that the new Netflix deal was made with an eye toward keeping new and relevant content on their platform, it may prove quite the coup that keeps Spider-Man off of Disney+ for years to come - or forever.
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