Legal web entangles Queens’ Spider-Man as Sony, Disney battle for rights

Queens comic book hero Spider-Man is entangled in a legal dispute between Sony and Disney. Photo by Cristian Bortes/bortescristian via Wikimedia Commons.

By Rachel Vick

The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be swinging away from Queens, with two major media companies entangled in a legal web over who exactly owns the rights to Spider-Man.

The rumor mill (and the internet) exploded Tuesday after the news broke that Sony and Disney failed to reach an agreement on the future of Spider-Man, the comic book hero from Queens. Sony has owned the rights to the character since 1999, but regains full control with this decision. 

A statement released by Sony on Twitter cites the workload of Kevin Feige, the producer behind the most recent iteration of the character with Tom Holland starring as the hometown hero. The statement says the decision to pull Feige came from Disney, which has hired him to produce other films in the Marvel Franchise. 

Upset fans have called for the media conglomerates to set aside their differences for the sake of the character, with some calling for boycotts of the Marvel Universe. 

There are two more Tom Holland-helmed Spider-Man films in the works from Sony and director Jon Watts, but there has been no word on the appearance of the character in MCU films already in production. Many fans are also left questioning how the future films will handle a storyline that is currently cemented in the MCU.

Sony created a fan-favorite with “Into the Spiderverse.” There are also other crossover opportunities, with Sony owning Fantastic Four and Venom. 

The future of the Spider-Man franchise is up in the air, with no further word from Disney or Marvel.