The Supermovies Infographic: Now With Fewer Movies, Less Spider-Man
We always suspected this day would come; our Supermovies Infographic is actually shrinking. The announcement of a new deal between Sony and Marvel over the Spider-Man movies, which sees Spider-Man integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe but still under Sony's control, has not only bumped a lot of release dates back to avoid a Marvel/Sony showdown, but has also pushed at least a couple of films off the chart completely.
Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel have all been pushed back into each other's slots to make room for an as-yet untitled Spider-Man movie in July 2017, and Inhumans has staked a new spot after the second Infinity War movie. This means a frustrating eight month delay for Marvel Studios' first black solo hero, and a four month delay for Marvel's first female solo hero.
The third Amazing Spider-Man movie, planned for some time in 2018, is obviously now no longer happening, and Andrew Garfield will not reprise his role as Ol' Webhead; but that movie makes a straight swap with the new 2017 Spider-Man movie with an unknown lead (we're hoping for Donald Glover). The Spider-Man spin-off with a female lead and the Venom: Carnage movie have also been dropped from the schedule. Sinister Six is reportedly still happening, but it won't happen before the new Spider-Man movie, and it won't be set in the now-abandoned Amazing Spider-Man continuity.
The fact that Sony's Spider-Man franchise must now play nice with Marvel's other franchises should have some interesting ramifications for the calendar, perhaps making it less crowded that it would otherwise have been. The knock-on effect is that this may dilute Marvel's interest in its less mainstream properties. Spider-Man is a relatively safe bet. As we argued last summer before the Black Panther and Captain Marvel movies were announced, one of Marvel's great strengths as a studio is that it was forced to take risks on less well-known properties because it didn't have Spider-Man or the X-Men.
Will this infographic shrink again? Could some of those Fox, Marvel, or Warner Bros movies drop off the slate? Will Sony add more Spider-Man movies within the current timeline? We'll keep you updated on all the latest developments.