On August 20th, 2019, after Spider-Man: Far From Home became the highest grossing Sony movie, raising $1.1 billion worldwide, Disney proposed a deal, wanting 50/50 ownership of all rights to the Spider-Man franchise. Sony refused the deal, but offered Disney 30%. Disney declined that offer and since both companies had failed to reach an agreement, the character must leave Marvel’s cinematic universe (MCU). Not only does the character leave the MCU, but in addition to this, the producer of all Marvel movies, Kevin Keige, is no longer permitted to be involved in any future Spider-Man films or spin-offs such as Venom 2 and Morbius.

   Sony’s original plan was to release two upcoming Spider-Man films with current actor Tom Holland reprising his role, even though the events of Spider-Man will contribute nothing to MCU’s stories or characters. Back in 2016, Marvel and Kevin Keige went to great lengths in order for Spider-Man to be included in the MCU. In Disney and Sony’s original deal with Spider-Man’s inclusion, Sony retained 95% of income and box office finacess of any and all Spider-Man films, while Disney would only own 5%. This included Spider-Man Homecoming and Spider-Man Far From Home.  Since Sony owns the majority of rights for the films, they’re paying no expense to extend their own cinematic universe with upcoming sequels to Spider-Man related franchises like Venom and Into The Spider-Verse.  Fans were outraged to find out that Spider-Man would carry out his adventures without being involved in the MCU. 

   On September 27th, 2019, Tom Holland negotiated with CEO of Disney, Bill Iger, and CEO of Sony, Kenchiro Yoshida, in one last deal. Both companies approved, leaving Director John Watts to direct the third Spider-Man film that will be released on July 21, 2021. There will also be one additional Marvel film in which Spider-Man will appear.