In the days before the Sony hack, we never knew where comic book movie rumors really came from. It was pretty much always LatinoReview or BadAssDigest, but where were they getting it from? Anonymous insiders, of course. Well, at least for a short while longer we've all become anonymous insiders who know exactly what is going on with Spider-Man at Sony. We can look up email exchanges between the head of Sony Pictures (Amy Pascal), the president of Columbia Pictures (Michael De Luca), and one of the lead producers of the Spider-Man movies (Matt Tolmach) to monitor their conversations about almost reaching a deal with Marvel Studios, contemplating re-casting Andrew Garfield, and making Venom the big, bad villain that Spider-Man and his lesser villains have to team up to defeat in The Sinister Six. We also know that they had all discussed convening a "Spidey summit" sometime this month to map out the future of Spider-Man at the studio. As such, when LatinoReview drops a new rumor on us today we can immediately assume that it's probably coming out of that "Spidey summit."
Isn't it nice to know a lot, and a little bit not.
Anyway, here's what LR has heard:
Spider-Man IS in Avengers: Infinity Wars Part 1 (due May 4, 2018), the Sony deal went through. I don't have the exact details nor a paper trail, but I'm told we'll see an MCU Spider-Man in Infinity Wars Part 1, as that was the next logical place to insert him after they missed the window to logically include him in Civil War [...]Now I've gotta spend my nights trying to figure out if Sony's announced November 11th, 2016 Spider-Man movie is going to be a co-production or simply scrapped. Here's hoping for co-production.
Furthermore, LR disputes recent insane rumors that alleged, well, I'll let them explain it:
You might have seen referenced a supposed "leaked" series of e-mails outlining a Spider-Man Summit where Sony and Marvel agree to share Spider-Man and put him in Civil War so they can lead into "Amazing Vs. Spider-Man" which would feature Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. This, of course, is all fabricated. Garfield will not be part of any future Spider-Man deal and I'm CERTAIN Tobey Maguire is allowed to have thoughts of his own that allow him to turn down coming back to Spider-Man. I have no doubt he would. He is old.
So, there you have it. Garfield is out, Maguire will continue to stay out, and Marvel Studios finally has Spider-Man back. Previous rumors had suggested Marvel's approach to the character would re-boot the character without re-doing the origin story, and de-emphasize the romance angle of the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb films in favor of focusing more on the drama of trying to be a high school student AND a super-hero. LR doesn't actually say if any of that is true, but it does argue that Marvel wants Spider-Man for Infinity War Part 1 as an insurance policy because as currently planned few if any of the original Avengers will be in Infinity War Part 1. I'll just stop right there because the rest gets into major spoiler territory
But, wait, we've only heard from one half of the internet's comic book movie rumor king. What does BadAssDigest have to say about any of this? They're urging caution:
I believe that Marvel is preparing to put Spider-Man in Infinity War I... but they were also preparing to put him in Captain America: Civil War. The will to do it isn't the same thing as the ability to do it. Until there's a script for the film there's no way of knowing what will actually happen in the movie [...] The big stumbling block for getting Spidey at Marvel is Avi Arad; Avi is attached to the property in an ironclad way, and Kevin Feige will never work with that old man again. There's no love lost between the two, and Feige is frankly in a 'fuck you' position when it comes to Spider-Man - it would be cool for Marvel to get him the studio certainly isn't hurting for him. Unless Sony figured out how to freeze Avi out I just don't know how they could ever reach a deal. But like I said, Latino Review's source on this is a good one. I just hope everybody doesn't jump to the conclusion that it is happening. A lot can change between now and 2018.
LatinoReview is right about these things most of the time, but not all of the time. They're the ones who once reported that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was going to be filmed back-to-back with Justice League. That may or may not have been something Warner Bros. was considering at the time, but cut to today and it's not something they ended up doing. So, let's not run to Photoshop potential covers for an Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 with Spider-Man front and center. Actually, that would probably look really cool. Do that anyway, internet. ( Umm, never mind; I think the internet has been doing that kind of thing for several years now). It just may turn out to be wasted effort.
That all being said, though, one thing that seems certain is man, oh man are things not looking good for anyone hoping to ever see Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man again.
Sources: LatinoReview, BadAssDigest
