Home Rumours: Spider-Man crossover, big change in The Avengers 3?

Rumours: Spider-Man crossover, big change in The Avengers 3?

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The_Marvel_UniverseMarvel have done better than anyone could have estimated in their building of an on-screen presence. From Iron Man, their HUGE original hit that kicked off this empire, up until their most recent box office smash Guardians of the Galaxy, one thing has remained certain: they know how to print cash. I mean look at how well GOTG has done – so far over $600 million and this is bound to go up with the DVDs coming out in December – all with relatively unknown actors. So what could they do with one of their most recognizable heroes?

Well, some very interesting rumours have been coming in from a few corners of the web of late; notably from HitFix and Badass Digest. The former is reporting that after fans have been clamoring for this for years now, there are finally talks happening between SONY Pictures – who own Spider-Man’s cinematic rights – and Marvel to allow Spidey to join the Marvel Cinematic universe as part of some future crossover.

Here’s what Drew McWeeney at HitFix has to say on it:

“While I can’t get the confirmations I need to verify the story, I’m hearing that there are some very cool “Spider-Man” plans being discussed that would help Sony refocus their enormously important franchise while also opening up some connections in the onscreen Marvel movie universe that would blow fandom’s minds. Will it work out? I don’t know. I would love to be able to state for sure that it’s happening. What seems clear from what I’ve heard is that Marvel wants to be able to play with all of their characters, and if they can make that work creatively and on a corporate level, they will, and that means the world gets bigger again.”

With their last take on the web-slinging arachnid in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 receiving mixed reviews from critics and not being as financially successful as they would have liked (yes, it made over $700 million, but Sony had been banking on a $1 billion haul) it wouldn’t be a surprise if Sony wanted to join forces with Marvel, who seem to be blessed with the golden touch.

The second rumour, which may be even bigger, comes from Badass Digest. Last week, a story popped up that Marvel were thinking of splitting The Avengers 3 into two separate movies. We never ran the story, because the rumour seemed extremely flimsy, especially when you consider that Marvel has very specific contract commitments with its actors which wouldn’t allow for them to just start splitting up movies. But as dismissive as we – and most others – were of that rumour, it may have been on to something.

While doing some digging into that rumour, Badass Digest’s Devin Faraci – who has been rock solid with his scoops lately – found that while The Avengers 3 won’t be split over two movies, the characters might be. Apparently as part of a sneaky way of dealing with contracts coming to an end – Chris Evans has two films left, Robert Downey Jr one, Chris Hemsworth also one – Marvel may leave most of their well-established characters out of the Avengers 3 entirely instead opting for lesser known, fresh characters from the Avengers canon. We know that Robert Downey Jr’s contract specifically mentions him appearing in The Avengers 3, so it could be that Iron Man will be leading a new team consisting of some of the new Phase 3 characters like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and maybe even the long rumoured Black Panther and Captain Marvel.

Avengers-Infinity

It’s been widely accepted that The Avengers 3 would be the conclusion of the Thanos storyline, so why would Marvel not have the likes of Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk and Hawkeye around for that throwdown? Well, because they would be held back to appear in another, even bigger Avengers crossover movie the very next year that would see all the heroes appearing together in a what will undoubtedly cause many a geek’s brain to just explode with awesomeness.

But what could this second movie be about? Our resident comic-book monkey expert Kervyn has two different theories on the matter. Firstly, we may see Avengers 3 being a purely Earth-based story where they start the battle with Thanos, while the next movie would see a team in outer space finishing it all off. This is exactly what happened in a recent major comic book story arc called “Infinity’ where the team had to split up to take on some big alien threat at the same time as they faced – yes, you guessed it – Thanos. Not only would this help Marvel to bring the Guardians of the Galaxy into the fold – and potentially set up that Planet Hulk movie that we all have been Hulk-smashing our keyboards asking for for the last few years! – but “Infinity” also heavily features and expands on the story for The Inhumans, who Marvel are already developing to be their next big thing.

Kervyn’s second theory is the most intriguing though: He thinks that the Thanos story will be dealt with completely in The Avengers 3, but that something is going to happen  that’s going to kick off a division between the heroes. The reason why Cap and the gang won’t be fighting alongside Stark and friends, is because they are all going to be fighting each other. Yes, I am of course talking about the Civil War storyline, something which we’ve already speculated will be kicked off in Captain America 3, which just so happens to be coming out before The Avengers 3. 

captain-america-the-first-avenger-vs-iron-man-5

Just a quick refresher: In the Civil War comic book storyline, Tony Stark spearheads a superhero registration act that will have all heroes register with the government – including their secret identities – and be trained and assigned to government mandated teams so as to be more effective. Captain America doesn’t agree with this lack of personal freedoms and privacy, and the two friends essentially end up going to war with each other, each with his own team of supporters.

But while Iron Man and Cap are the two figureheads of the two factions, there’s one hero that arguably performs the most important action in the whole storyline when he publicly unmasks so as to show his support for the registration act. The hero? Why just somebody we were talking about just a few minutes ago: Spider-Man.

Marvel and Sony collaborating to bring Spidey into the fold so that he can do his thing in Civil War is something that will have the fans losing their minds – and of course throwing their money at the two studios. And the same can definitely be said for The Inhumans also getting in on the mix (and don’t forget about the Planet Hulk pipe-dream).

Whatever happens, Marvel have managed to keep their movies fresh and entertaining and I am sure they won’t be changing their winning formula any time soon.

 

Last Updated: October 7, 2014

2 Comments

  1. I said the other day, the 2nd episode of SHIELD S2 hinted at Inhumans.

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      October 7, 2014 at 13:30

      Agreed. Also flipping great episode.

      Reply

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