- Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is set to have a fourth stand-alone MCU movie
- But the character cannot appear in any live-action MCU series on Disney+
- Sony could still use the character in a TV series
There have been various MCU-related series on Disney+ with cameos from stars of the movies – but never Spider-Man. And there are complicated reasons for this.
Indeed, Marvel has recently confirmed that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man won’t appear in any live-action Disney+ series for at least the foreseeable future. Brad Winterbaum, Marvel Studio’s head of streaming, television and animation confirmed this, saying that Sony still has the long-form television rights to the character. “We can do 30-minute animation.”
Complex rights
This is the latest development in the complex rights deal that exists between Sony and Marvel over the web-slinger. Marvel sold the rights for Spider-Man movies to Sony many years ago – long before the MCU – and they produced the highly successful trilogy of films starring Tobey Maguire as Spidey.
It is also the reason why it was some years after the launch of the MCU that Spider-Man first swung in – it took Marvel and Sony time to come to an agreement about the use of the character.
Marvel has worked around the problem with the development of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and animated series based in an alternative universe to the mainstream MCU that provided a new spin on the well-known Spidey origin story.
Potential Spider-Man appearances
It could have made sense for Spidey to appear in certain MCU series, such as the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+. Both characters live and work in New York, and it has previously been established that Matt Murdock/Daredevil know each other – Murdock appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
However, this isn’t going to happen unless Sony and Disney sit down and thrash out a new deal.
But what could potentially happen is that Sony could develop a live-action Spider-Man based series for streaming platforms or TV channels. While it wouldn’t be Holland’s version, it could easily be a Spidey from a different universe (thank goodness for the multiverse, eh?). Sony already has a cast of antagonists established, such as Kraven.
Could this be a way for Sony to go after it has apparently abandoned its Sony Spider-man Universe after Kraven the Hunter flopped last year?
Sony hasn’t said that it is planning anything like that, however. It currently has the third in the Spider-Man Spider-Verse animated movie series in development, but it is still unclear when that is coming out. Here is all we know about Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
So for a live-action fix of Spider-Man, fans will have to wait until July 24, 2026, when Spider-Man 4 is released in theaters.
