Official: 'Spider-Man' Is Now a Part of Marvel's Cinematic Universe

BREAKING: The news Marvel fans have been waiting for has finally arrived. Late tonight, Marvel Studios officially announced that they will be teaming with Sony Pictures for the next iteration of Spider-Man. Under the new deal between the studios, the new Spider-Man, which will not be Andrew Garfield from The Amazing Spider-Man franchise, will first appear in one of the forthcoming Marvel Studios films (most likely Captain America: Civil War) and then will have the first installment of a new franchise hitting theaters on July 28th, 2017. Sony Pictures will distribute and Kevin Feige will co-produce the film with a familiar face.

Even though Amy Pascal recently stepped down as co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures, she will act as co-producer on the new Spider-Man film after working for 13 years on the previous webslinger franchises. This marks a whole new direction for the neighborhood wallcrawler, though Sony Pictures will still maintain distribution, ownership and creative control over the Spider-Man films. This really is the best of both worlds, and it's something the fans have been clamoring for ever since The Avengers arrived, and Sony's latest iteration of Spider-Man disappointed them.

In addition, Marvel's announcement also teases that they are talking with Sony about ways to integrate characters from the Marvel cinematic universe into the new Spider-Man franchise. Bog Iger at Disney delivered some standard publicity fluff saying, "Spider-Man is one of Marvel's great characters, beloved around the world. We're thrilled to work with Sony Pictures to bring the iconic web-slinger into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which opens up fantastic new opportunities for storytelling and franchise building." I'm betting that fans are even more thrilled than Iger at this prospect.

And finally, Kevin Feige says, "Marvel's involvement [with Spider-Man] will hopefully deliver the creative continuity and authenticity that fans demand from the MCU. I am equally excited for the opportunity to have Spider-Man appear in the MCU, something which both we at Marvel, and fans alike, have been looking forward to for years." Now the question is who will Marvel get to play Spider-Man since poor Andrew Garfield is missing out on this anticipated collaboration? I hope Donald Glover has his agents ready to start making calls, because now might be the time for him to become Spider-Man. Thoughts?

Source: Marvel