Spider-Man Will Still Be an Avenger, as Marvel and Sony Agree to Make a Movie Together After All

Well, look who's still an Avenger after all.

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Walt Disney Studios have announced that they will team up on another Spider-Man film, after negotiations between the two had reportedly soured. This means Tom Holland's Spider-Man will still be an active part of the Disney-controlled Marvel Cinematic Universe, keeping the door open for him to appear in any future Avengers movies.

Kevin Feige - president of Marvel Studios, which has been amazingly successful in recent years - will produce the film, the third in the Spider-Man Homecoming series. (Feige is also fresh off the news that he'll be developing a movie in the Star Wars universe, which is also controlled by Disney.)

"I am thrilled that Spidey's journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it," Feige said in a statement. "Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold."

The as-yet-untitled film will be released July 16, 2021. Amy Pascal, the former head of Sony's movie division, will also be a producer, as she was on Spider-Man: Homecoming and this year's Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Sony and Marvel had been producing the Homecoming movies together but could not come to terms on a new deal in August. At that point, it appeared Spider-Man movies would continue to be made by Sony on its own, without the Marvel Studios touch and the connection to the Avengers landscape, both of which have revitalized the wall-crawler's live-action films.

Sony, which controls the film character, received critical acclaim on its own with 2018′s Academy Award-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and made a lot of overseas money that same year with Spidey bad guy Venom in his self-titled cinematic debut. Perhaps the thinking was that Sony could take it from here now that Marvel Studios had given Spider-Man new life on screen.

But many fans were disappointed at the news that Spider-Man might no longer be a part of Marvel Studios' interconnected storytelling, especially after a cliffhanger ending in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Now, with this new deal, the two sides can move forward together with one of the most popular superhero brands of all.

© The Washington Post 2019