Sony and Marvel Discussed Spider-Man Appearing In 'Captain America: Civil War'

According to emails released during a recent hack on Sony Pictures, the studio and Marvel owner Disney have discussed teaming for an animated Spider-Man comedy — and to have the superhero show up in 2016's Captain America: Civil War.

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The emails were sent to and from Sony motion picture chief Amy Pascal, and included correspondences with Sony CEO Kaz Hirai and Disney CEO Bob Iger, according to The Wall Street Journal. Marvel is owned by Disney.
An Oct. 30 email from Sony Pictures president Doug Belgrad to Pascal discussed the possibility of Marvel producing a new Spider-Man trilogy that would see Sony retain “creative control, marketing and distribution.”
Those discussions later broke down, The Journal reports, adding that The Lego Movie directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord have a Spider-Man animated comedy in development at the studio.
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Sony holds licensing rights to produce Spider-Man movies, though some Marvel fans have suggested the property should be returned so the hero could appear in Marvel Studios films. In the 2006 comic book storyline Civil War, Spider-Man plays a key role, which also had fans wishing he could appear in the film version.
In July, Sony moved its next Amazing Spider-Man film from 2016 to 2018 after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to meet box office expectations. It has spinoff films involving The Sinister Six and a female superhero in the works.
Sony suffered a large hack Nov. 24, which has resulted in the release of a slew of private emails, sensitive information about 47,000 employees and financial data to be released.

Avengers 2 Will Have A Big Effect On Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been remarkably effective at tying Marvel’s movie franchises in with the TV series. Keeping that in mind, it’s not a great shock to learn that the ABC drama will tie in with the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron, but quite frankly, we’re pleased to hear it anyway. This week, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. executive producer Jed Whedon teased that the movie will indeed tie in with the larger storyline going on in the TV show.

Obviously, that doesn’t give us a whole lot of specifics, but we do also know that the tie-in won’t be quite as big as the mind-blowing Hydra stuff that affected S.H.I.E.L.D. after Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit theaters. Other executive producer Mauriss Tancharoen also told EW that the ripple effects will be much smaller this time around. Still, they will be present, and that’s something to look forward to. 

While DC Entertainment has made a big to-do about keeping its film and TV universes separate, Marvel is all for as much crossover as possible. We’ve seen multiple characters cross over between the movies and the shows, including people like Lady Sif, but probably the most prominent of these examples is the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Hydra infiltration stuff, which has ended up having a major effect on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. In fact, Season 2 has followed Agent Coulson and his team attempting to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. after its ultimate collapse, and fans are still seeing the effects of the tie-in. 

This time the crossover stuff sounds like it will be a little smaller scale, so it could be similar to how Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reacted with a cleanup after Thor: The Dark World did its thing. Obviously, Avengers: Age of Ultron doesn’t even hit theaters until May—which is towards the end of the TV season, so it’s possible the movie won’t even have to do with the show until it returns for Season 3—and that’s if ABC signs on for another season next fall. 

In the meantime, there are plenty of good reasons to watch S.H.I.E.L.D. Tonight’s explosive midseason finale is expected to be one to watch. You can catch the new episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. over at ABC at 9 p.m. ET.