After the recent success of Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, it seemed clear that we had not seen the last of our beloved Peter Parker, a.k.a Spider-Man. However, even spidey senses could not have foreseen the recent disagreement between Marvel and Sony.

On Tuesday, August 20, it was announced that Sony and Marvel had a dispute, and that Sony was revoking the rights to the famous superhero, Spider-Man. Although Spider-Man is a Marvel character, Sony has owned the rights since 1999.

In 2015, Sony decided to make a deal with Disney, the company which owns Marvel. The deal stated that Marvel could feature Spider-Man in both standalone and MCU crossover films, and would receive 5% of the profits grossed.

The most recent MCU film, Spider-Man: Far From Home was a huge success. The film grossed over 1.1 billion worldwide, making it the first Spider-Man film to pass the one billion mark and the highest grossing Sony film ever. Therefore, it makes sense that Disney would ask for more than 5% of the profits; however, this is where the dispute started.

After the huge success of Spider-Man in recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, Disney wanted to split the profits and production costs with Sony. Sony, however, wanted the deal to stay the way it was. After a long argument, both parties agreed to walk away, resulting in a loss for both companies and causing Spider-Man to be pulled from the MCU.

Going forward, Sony has decided to produce the Spider-Man films on their own, apart from the MCU. They believe that director Jon Watts, producer Amy Pascal and Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland, will be enough to continue the franchise. They originally wanted Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel, to be their lead producer for the new films; however, Feige will not be continuing as producer due to all his responsibilities to Marvel.

What the future holds for Spider-Man is unclear. It seems as if Sony and Disney have gone their separate ways for good; however, the split benefits neither party. If Marvel fans are lucky enough, maybe the two companies can still work out their differences and Spider-Man can return to the MCU for good. Until then, Marvel fans will just have to wait and hope for the best.