By Alex Krefetz

The rumors were true: Spider-Man is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though not in the most straightforward way. From Marvel’s press release:

Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.

Instead of giving Marvel Studios the rights back to Spider-Man, it seems Sony will hold onto the rights for the Spider-Man characters and universe and still make the solo Spider-Man films. There’s cause for celebration as Peter Parker joins up with Captain America, Iron Man and the rest of the Marvel crew on the big screen, but there are still a number of questions about what this merger will mean.

Sony

Since 2002, Sony Pictures put out a total of five Spider-Man movies over the course of two franchises. Back in ’02, Spider-Man lead the charge with Fox’s X-Men films as Marvel’s branch of movies before Marvel Studios began building a cohesive universe with Iron Man. The first franchise, directed by Sam Raimni, is generally held in high regard (not including the third and final film in the series) for combining a family-friendly spin on the character with fun movies reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons. They still stand as three of the top grossing comic book movies of all time, and expectations were high when a reboot was announced.

In 2012, Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man attempted to “modernize” the character while hoping to deliver a follow-up to Raimni’s well-received trilogy and an audience still reeling from The Avengers. Reception to the movie was not as positive as the original, though it still brought in a nice chunk of change. Last year saw the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which received less enthusiasm than prior Spider-flicks but still brought in money with lucrative international licensing deals. In the last few months, information trickled out about Sony attempting a “cinematic universe” of its own on movies based around Venom, the Sinister Six, and even Aunt May. It seemed Sony was rushing to use as much of its Spider-Man license as it could, risking dilution of the entire franchise. With this news of partnering with Marvel and rebooting the franchise for a second time, Sony stands to benefit greatly.

Despite lackluster blockbusters, the movies still performed well for Sony especially in international markets. No matter the work Marvel Studios put in to build Iron Man’s image to the general public from a nobody to the Robert Downey Jr.-fueled star of Marvel pictures, Spider-Man still stood as Marvel Comic’s largest franchise. Even when the movies dipped in quality, there were plenty of Spider-Man action figures, statues, and party favors among a myriad of stuff that made money for Sony. Unlike Marvel’s rumored attempt to down-play the Fantastic Four in the wake of Fox’s new movie, Marvel Comics could never attempt to obscure Spider-Man as their preeminent star across all lines of media.

While it could often come off as wishy-washy to reboot the film franchise again after the second movie launched last year, Sony’s partnership with Marvel and larger cinematic universe seems a worthwhile investment for letting go of the cast and plot of the current movies to make room for whatever Marvel is cooking. Marvel continues to steward its brand in the movies, and Sony can stick along for the ride and make a killing off the most recognizable Marvel character and connecting it to the multi-billion larger Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I doubt many fans will cry over losing Andrew Garfield’s rendition on Peter Parker, and spend more time excited for what the next movie holds and how it connects back to their other favorite comic book movies.

Marvel

Since creating its own movie studio, Marvel has been trying to strong arm its way back to getting the rights back for their franchises sold to other movie companies. They’ve also had to worry about promoting their competitions movies above their own as well as ensuring their characters are safe from movie executives and poor direction. Out of the three major franchises out of their control (Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spider-Man), bringing Peter Parker back into the fold is the easiest and most profitable franchise to build into the current MCU.

With more creative control on Spider-Man’s solo movies as well as integration into other MCU films, Feige and company can rest easy that the company darling won’t be tarnished by Sony Pictures potentially releasing floppers. At the same time, they can build one of the most popular comic characters into their movies and adjust schedules accordingly. Marvel has pushed around the dates on Thor: Ragnarock, Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Inhumans to make room for Spider-Man in 2017. Ordinarily, moving around movie times might be a sign to worry but considering Feige oversees all of these and the comprehensive MCU story, these changes will probably not impact the film content of quality (besides, we’re talking about movies that come out between two and four years from now).

One interesting note is where the movie falls between other MCU pictures. with a 2017 release, Spider-Man will come out after Captain America: Civil War. While we don’t know much about that movie, the original comic series did have Spider-Man serve as an important plot point, though this was in a universe that Spider-Man had existed in for decades before and not an introduction to the character. Still, it might serve as the starting point for Peter Parker in the MCU, and we might get a new Spider-Man solo movie in 2017 that isn’t an origin story (assuming that it’s been explored in Captain America: Civil War). Even if its not that particular movie, we may see some changes in the movies still in production and set to release before 2017 to make way for Spider-Man to enter the larger world.

The Fans

No matter what, there are still going to be MCU movies and Spider-Man movies. We’re set to see a new Spider-Man franchise start after just two years of the old status quo, although many people don’t seem too attached to Marc Webb’s take on the character. With Marvel helping to steer the course going forward, the worst Sony seems to lose is some creative control while tapping into even more money from an already lucrative franchise. Marvel gets to keep playing with its own toys, and can also reap in the dough. We fans benefit from a franchise we love being worked into the MCU and seeing Spider-Man stand alongside the rest of the Avengers. It’s an arrangement that Sony, Marvel, and the fans can all walk away from and feel like they got the better end of the deal