Our brand-integrity sense is tingling. Sony and Disney have finally negotiated a deal to bring Spider-Man and other Sony properties to Disney+. According to Variety, the deal not only covers Disney+ but a host of other Disney platforms like Hulu, Freeform, FX Networks, ABC, and Disney Channels. The “platform agnostic†deal is set to begin with Sony’s 2022 slate and goes through 2026. It also includes a number of library titles, though there is no specific date set for when films like Spider-Man: Homecoming will hit Disney.
Sony’s 2022–26 theatrical releases will first appear on Netflix (which also brokered a deal with Sony today), then over to Disney. Variety predicts that the Disney and Netflix deals combined will earn Sony around $3 billion.
Spider-Man has always been the odd duck out in the MCU, thanks to Sony owning his Spider-butt. When Marvel sold off IP rights back in the day, they couldn’t possibly have known that splitting them among various studios would result in a whole Parent Trap situation, with Peter Parker desperately trying to get Sony and Disney to kiss and make up. In 2019, the Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man series seemed in danger of going under due to snags in negotiations between Sony and Disney. It took earnest pleading from Tom Holland himself to get the two corporations to quash their beef and get cracking on Spider-Man 3. And now that this deal is in place, Spider-Man: No Way Home will (somewhat ironically) find a home one day on Disney+.