by Jonah Sachs ‘20

Two Vultures, one Spiderman. With the recent teaser of Sony Pictures’ “Morbius,” showcasing a vampire-supervillain hybrid known to few diehard Marvel fans as one of Spiderman’s arch nemesis’, many viewers are left scratching their heads, unable to understand where exactly the much-beloved Spiderman was. As it turns out, recent complications between Disney and Sony cut the ties between the two, almost jeopardizing the future of Tom Holland’s Spider Man. Sony Pictures owns the characters in Spiderman’s extended universe; Disney owns the franchise. Sharing the spotlight and reuniting the once-fluid brainchildren of Stan Lee was not an option for these two media-supergiants. Now, though, after much back and forth between the two and immense outside pressure from the ‘Tom Holland fan club,’ it seems a new deal has been reached. Why, though, must the beloved franchise be so confusing? The answer is simple: money.

The Walt Disney Company once dazzled viewers’ hearts with their one-of-a-kind movie spectacles, releasing original films on an annual basis. Now, though, Disney has a new sparkle in its eye, and this one is made of gold. Disney’s longstanding struggle to own mass media as a whole began after their accumulation of blockbuster franchises like Pixar Studios, Star Wars, Avatar, and now Marvel, National Geographic and Fox Entertainment. Their great expansion had momentarily ceased more recently, though, with Sony’s rejection of licensing Spiderman. Unable to make a deal involving the future of Spiderman in the MCU this past August, the two thought first to cut their losses and ties for good, leaving Spiderman to Sony and the rest of Marvel to the mouse himself.

Finally giving Sony the funds to produce Spiderman’s friends, foes, and side characters in their own, isolated world, though, Disney acquired the rights to Spiderman once and for all, keeping him in their own isolated MCU. Sony gets to use Marvel’s name, Disney keeps their webbed star. Sony, however, must make a world without their protagonist: a New York City without Spidey. This, then, is where Morbius fits in. Within his own world of Dr. Octopus’, Green Goblin’s and Vulture’s, Morbius is to exist in a city desolate of friendly spiders, existing with a mere reproduction of the previously developed characters from Disney’s Spiderverse. It seems, based on this overly complicated situation between the two companies, then, that when money is on the line, no exchange of rights, characters, and funds is too complicated for the parties involved.