Did you feel like the Avengers were missing that little something extra? A visit from everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, perhaps?
Spidey exists in the same comic book universe as Iron Man, Thor, Cap, the Hulk, and others, so why can’t he help the superteam fight supervillains on the big screen? The answer is pretty complicated, but there may be hope for the future if Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad gets his way.
Marvel is releasing two major comic book blockbusters this year: the superhero ensemble The Avengers – which broke box office records last month – and The Amazing Spider-Man – a wall-crawling reboot of the popular film franchise. Although both films star key Marvel Comics characters and are set in the same city, Spider-Man and the Avengers heroes cannot interact with each other on the big screen. While Disney (Marvel’s parent company) owns all of these characters on the comics page, it does not own the film rights to all of them.
In the early 1990s, cash-strapped Marvel Comics sold the film rights to many of its characters and works. The sale of the film rights resulted in some terrible low-budget films, including a hilariously bad 1990 “Captain America” and a Roger Corman-produced “Fantastic Four” adaptation that was so terrible it was never released.
At about the same time, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to Marvel’s then-extremely popular X-Men characters and redefined comic book movies a few years later in 2000 with the X-Men film adaptation. Sony also acquired the rights to Spider-Man and created a hugely successful film franchise. Recognizing the value of these comic book characters in the form of massive box office receipts, Fox and Sony wisely decided to retain the film rights – meaning that the two studios each had the say on the big-screen versions of X-Men and Spider-Man.
Fast forward a few years and Marvel Studios has since taken the reins on most of the new Marvel Comics movies (e.g. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man 2). They’re still involved in producing Fox and Sony’s Marvel movies, but those studios have the final say. Control over the majority of the Marvel Universe’s characters, however, means Marvel Studios can basically do whatever they want with them. And that’s exactly what they’ve done, slowly but surely creating a cohesive cinematic universe for all of their heroes. Years of shared lore and cross-film cameos by certain characters – namely General Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson – eventually led to the big screen tag team that was The Avengers.
The massive success of The Avengers has whetted people’s appetite for more superhero crossovers. Even Warner Bros., which owns Marvel rival DC Comics, has rushed to prepare its own super-team movie, Justice League, in the wake of The Avengers. People want more, but the question on every fanboy/fangirl’s mind is whether the entire Marvel cast of heroes will ever work together on the big screen. At a recent press conference for The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Studios’ Avi Arad sounded hopeful when asked about Spidey’s possible appearance in Avengers 2.
“Anything is possible,” Arad told Crave Online. “If something like this happens, it’s great for Disney and great for Sony.”
Arad went on to talk about the planned “Spider-Man” spin-off “Venom” and a possible crossover with Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker in that film. Regarding both an “Avengers” and a “Venom” crossover, Arad said that as long as the pieces fit together technically and creatively, there’s nothing stopping a big screen team-up.
What the Marvel Studios boss didn’t mention, however, is the incredible sum of money involved in producing these films. Any collaboration between the Sony-controlled Spider-Man and the Disney-controlled Avengers on the big screen would require a huge financial agreement between the rival studios. Hollywood’s law firms would make a fortune on such a deal.
Would you watch an Avengers movie where Spider-Man showed up to help, or an X-Men movie where Hulk or Captain America joined the fight? Of course! Any self-respecting comic book fan would love to see that on the big screen. Fans want to see it, but it’s all up to Disney, Sony and Fox to make it happen.
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