The deal Marvel and Sony struck basically allowing Spider-Man to be part of the MCU while Sony holds the rights works out for all sides. But what if that's not always the case? These kinds of legal deals have a tendency to get complicated over time, and fans definitely don't want to see Spider-Man suddenly pulled out of a major storyline because of some behind-the-scenes nonsense. Fortunately, Kevin Feige reassures us that isn't about to happen. There are some pretty big spoilers here so beware!
Badass Digest caught up with Feige and part of treasure trove of info they learned how long Spider-Man will be hanging out with the Avengers and Co.
"For as forward thinking as we always try to be, there’s only so far you can tend to think, and our plan is fairly solid for those four or five years. I’ve never considered it in the Rom Spaceknight vernacular, necessarily..
So much of the anxiety at Marvel has been ‘Who do we have contracts with, who is still involved’? You want to plot out all these years of imagination based on amazing comics, but you need real people to make time in their lives to do, and to make career decisions to do it. That has been the hardest thing to manage… but for the first time, that’s all settled. It’s all settled through [2019]. It’s all set. And we’re able to focus now just on [telling stories].
It’s everything we announced last October, and we’ve added your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to the mix… and it’s all set."
So Spidey's going to be around all the way through Phase 3 and from there, who knows? That means he's bound to cross paths with the Hulk at some point, and maybe even the Scarlet Witch? Fortunately it looks like both will survive the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. In the case of the Hulk, however, he may not be in the best situation. Mark Ruffalo recently revealed to Collider that Universal has the rights to any solo Hulk films, meaning we won't be seeing one of those any time soon. So Marvel may go in a different direction. Badass Digest theorizes he may appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, based on the 'Age of Ultron' conclusion. They say the early script had Hulk rocketed off into space, which fits earlier rumors we'd heard about a potential Planet Hulk movie. But now the script calls for him to be trapped above Earth in a Quinjet. That means they could go in any number of directions. Crash him back down to Earth or send him into space to hang out Star-Lord and his team of assholes. Could that mean he'd return for Avengers: Infinity War with the Guardians in tow?
And what about Captain Marvel? Feige has confirmed repeatedly that she won't debut in 'Age of Ultron', but we know she was in early drafts of the script. So who did they use to replace her? Apparently it was Scarlet Witch for at least one major scene, and Feige teases that we may be seeing her in another Marvel film very soon.
"The way we reveal Scarlet Witch [in costume] at the end of the movie? Those were Captain Marvel plate shots. Joss said, ‘We’ll cast her later!’ And I said, ‘Yeah Joss, we’ll cast her later.’ [Whispers to an invisible associate who isn't Joss] ‘We’re not putting her in there! Finally Joss was like ‘Let’s use those plates to let Scarlet Witch fly into frame, give her a big entrance?’ And that makes sense - she’s come to their side, and she deserves the cool intro, which will feed into another movie we start shooting in a few weeks."
So a few things to take out of that are Scarlet Witch receiving a new costume, and that she will be in a movie which begins filming in a few weeks, which is almost certainly Captain America: Civil War. Plus, I think the lack of info on Quicksilver supports the theory he'll die by the end of the movie.
Lots to chew on, but don't let it distract you from Avengers: Age of Ultron which opens soon (!!!) on May 1st.
