Over this past summer, a lot of things happened. Although it was mostly positive, in terms of pop culture, the summer heat was not too kind to our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. If you’re like us, then you know his removal from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was the worst thing that could have happened to him. It seems like all we fought for was taken away after one bad deal, but between Disney and Sony, who is really to blame?

Both really. The reason that people like us are on Disney’s side is most likely because we’re sick of watching Sony getting too involved and ultimately ruining the character. Although Sony has recently been on a winning streak with titles like Insomniac Studios, “Spider-Man” for thePS4, and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, most of Sony’s  success is due to Spider-Man’s introduction into the MCU in 2016, following the release of Captain America: Civil War. 

Now you might be wondering why something seemingly so minor has become such a catastrophic issue to almost all die-hard Marvel fans. Ever since the MCU was established in 2008, following the release of Iron Man, people had been wanting to see Spider-Man share the big screen with the likes of the Avengers and the rest of the Marvel Universe. As of now, we may never see that again.

Now, Disney is not innocent in this situation either, in fact, they possess a great amount of fault in this situation. Their relationship with Sony was rocky to begin with, and introducing Spider-Man as such an integral character was extremely risky. The newest version of Spider-Man, Tom Holland’s take, has been arguably their most popular yet. His second solo movie produced over $1 billion in sales. So why would Disney and Sony give up that kind of revenue? Spider-Man has quickly become a fan favorite, especially in the absence of Iron Man. Both Disney and Sony know this, which makes their decision to end their partnership so ridiculous. Disney knows Marvel’s reputation will take a hit with this news, and if fans don’t like Sony’s Spider-Man, Disney is going to pay the price. 

While Marvel executives claim to have done all they could to keep Spider-Man as an MCU character, it seems obvious that Disney’s pride got in the way of maintaining their deal with Sony, which will undoubtedly lead to a severe decline in their profit from Marvel. This falling-out not only affects the movies, but any and all Spider-Man related merchandise and branding. All clothing, toys, backpacks, and more will no longer have that signature Marvel brand (Sony only owns the movie rights to the character, Marvel still owns the character themselves, so they will all still be branded as Marvel, just with a Sony sticker on them). The Marvel stores and Marvel sections in Disney will no longer carry anything Spider-Man related. This was an immensely huge loss on Disney’s part, meaning they should have fought harder to save our beloved Spider-Man.

In all, both companies are to blame, and both are at a huge loss because of this monumental fall-out. This decision benefits no one, and Spider-Man fans across the MCU are doing all they can to protest this split in hopes of keeping Spider-Man’s future within Marvel.

* photo via Google Images under the Creative Commons license