What would have to happen to merge the Spider-man franchise and the Avengers franchise?
The two franchises are held by two separate companies. One, Sony, holds the rights to Spider-man 4-7, and are obliged to continue this line or give up the rights to the movies. The other, Marvel Studios, owns the rights to the Avengers and the subsidiary characters.
Under what circumstances might Spider-man join the Avengers? Are movie rights buys outs uncommon? Could a serenity/firefly-esque loophole be pulled off? Could the two studios 'team up'?
The original reason for me asking this is that Spider-man plays a large part in the civil war comic. With The Civil War movie in the horizon, and the shuffling of executives in Sony after the hack debacle, I thought there might be some news on this.
Best Answer
Film corporation collaborations are not as uncommon as one might believe. This is especially true when dealing with music or music artists signed to one label that is under the umbrella of another corporation. Granted in those cases the film corporation really tries to pull music and artists from under it's own parent company labels but such is not ALWAYS possible.
Likewise when taking characters it always depends on what the film companies are willing to do. In that case it's always going to come down to money. Who gets what portion. This involves actors, screenwriters, and of course franchise owners.
The best example of this is "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" which gave us the first appearance of "Bugs Bunny" and "Mickey Mouse" on the screen at the same time. And the blood between Warner and Disney over animation was always HIGHLY hostile. (More talent theft than you see between Google, Apple, and Microsoft)
So, while collaborations aren't rare; what they collaborate over can be far more rare.
So, to answer the question, sometimes it's a contractual buyout of the franchise/character. Sometimes it's a character loan.
As mentioned in other responses, after months of deliberation, in February of 2015, Sony and the MCU announced an agreement to allow Spiderman to appear in upcoming MCU films. Details can be found at the Marvel.com website.
As per the original answer; it comes down to two corporations with rights to come to a contractual agreement over those rights. The same situation would be the case with the X-Men, or a Marvel/DC cross-over. The latter, far less likely.
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More answers regarding what would have to happen to merge the Spider-man franchise and the Avengers franchise?
Answer 2
It’s going to happen with the cooperation of both the studios, it was in talk from long. Discussion was from reboot to sequel. Spider-Man is a big part of Civil War story line, which is happening in Captain America: Civil War.
From Wikipedia Marvel Cinematic Universe page:
In February 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that Spider-Man will appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the character appearing in an MCU film and Sony releasing a Spider-Man film produced by Feige and Pascal on July 28, 2017. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films. Marvel Studios will also explore opportunities to integrate other characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into future Spider-Man films.
And from Spider Man in film page:
In December 2014, both Sony and Marvel were in discussion about having Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and appearing in Captain America: Civil War while still having control with the film rights. Those plans were said to be tabled. Instead, Sony has considered having Sam Raimi return to direct a new trilogy, along with an animated comedy with Phil Lord and Chris Miller. However, on February 9, 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that Spider-Man will appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the character appearing in an MCU film and Sony releasing a Spider-Man film produced by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal on July 28, 2017.
From theverge.com:
The timing of the deal means Spider-Man's likely to make his first Marvel movie appearance in Captain America: Civil War in May of next year, but the agreement doesn't mean that Sony is giving up the movie rights to the character. The studio will continue to finance, distribute, own, and have "final creative control" of standalone Spider-Man films, but Marvel Studios will be coming in to co-produce the next entry, now slated for July 28th, 2017. Sony Pictures said it was also "exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe into future Spider-Man films."
It's also mentioned on marvel.com.
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