The news has been rough in the world of Spider-Man. In the days since it was reported that Disney and Sony were going their separate ways, unable to reach an agreement regarding their joint partnership over the Spider-Man franchise, many have been playing the blame game and firing shots at both studios. Thanks to a new report from Variety breaking down the Spider-Man split, we may finally know who to point our fingers at. According to an unnamed source with inside knowledge of the deal, the X-Men franchise may be to blame for Disney and Sony divorcing.
The insider noted that Disney walked away from negotiations partly because executives want Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to place his focus more on the Marvel properties the studio recently acquired from Fox. Those properties include the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and many others.
Shortly before Disney acquired most of Fox's assets in March 2019, when the two companies merged under a $71.3 billion deal, it was confirmed that Feige would be taking over the X-Men movie franchise, and already had ideas as to what he would do with the gang of mutants within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Namely, he wants to recast Wolverine with a younger actor and evidently start things over from square one.
Longtime X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who hired Feige as an associate producer on 2000's X-Men, stated to Deadline in February 2019 that Feige was, quote, "still dealing with the wealth of characters and trying to make sense of it all."
Feige's plan for the X-Men property reportedly became much clearer in June 2019, following the release of Dark Phoenix, the 12th entry in the X-Men movie series. A financial and critical failure, Dark Phoenix posted the lowest opening weekend of any X-Men movie in history and is considered by some to be the worst installment of the franchise — which is disappointing given it was the last-ever X-Men film produced by Fox.
Reportedly, Dark Phoenix's box office bombing spurred Disney brass to rework its priorities at Marvel Studios, evidently wanting Feige to focus on rebuilding the X-Men brand. A source close to Variety indicated that Walt Disney Studios co-chairman Alan Bergman insisted on an end to the Sony talks after Dark Phoenix flopped. Keep watching the video to see that we may finally know who to blame for the Disney and Sony split!
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