Marvel and Sony are partnering on an entirely new Spider-Man movie
Late Monday night, Marvel and Sony announced a partnership that would allow Spider-Man into Marvel's cinematic universe. In other words, expect to see Spidey in some future Marvel movies, possibly alongside the Avengers and more.
Marvel Studios, which was purchased by Disney in 2009 for $4 billion, has the rights to Marvel characters including Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and more.
While Spider-Man is a Marvel character, he is one of several Marvel characters that have had previous long-standing deals with other movie studios which prevented Marvel Studios from including the characters in its movies.
Fox has the rights to the X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four, while Sony Pictures had the rights to Spider-Man.
Under the partnership, a new Spider-Man movie will be released July 28, 2017.
It's expected that current Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield will be replaced in the new films. A press release says the movie will take on a "new creative direction" for the character.
The entry of the new Spider-Man film has shifted the release of Marvel's upcoming releases as well.
The movie will be co-produced by Marvel and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige along with Amy Pascal. According to the release, Sony Pictures will "continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films."
In addition, Marvel has a few other big plans for Spidey.
Before the release of the next Spider-Man movie, the character will appear in a yet unannounced Marvel movie.
That movie will most likely be the next "Captain America" sequel, "Captain America: Civil War."
Disney previously tried to get Spider-Man back at Marvel, according to leaked emails during the Sony hack. Back then, Disney reportedly wanted Spider-Man for "Civil War," a storyline which pits Captain America against Iron Man. Spider-Man is at the heart of that comic as his allegiance is torn between between the two.
According to the release, the studios are also "exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films."
That means you could see Captain America or any of the Avengers or other Marvel characters in future Spidey flicks.
All together, the five previous Spider-Man movies have made over $4 billion worldwide.