Spider-Man fans are in luck, as five of the superhero's live-action movies are returning, with another debuting on Disney Plus.
Announced on the different channels of Disney Plus media partners, four films Spider-Man – the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy, as well as The Amazing Spider-Man, who met in vedette Andrew Garfield – are available for streaming today (21 April). Spider-Man: Homecoming, the wall-crawler Tom Holland's first solo outing after his supporting role in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, will join Peter Parker's party on May 12. All five movies were previously available on Disney Plus and Netflix at various points over the past few years.
🕸 Spider-Man arrives tomorrow, April 21, at #DisneyPlus. (2/6) pic.twitter.com/4UBLT7RHwLAApril 20, 2023
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Wait, I said there were six Spider-Man movies on Disney's main stream, but it's only five. So what is the other one? Surely it's not Spider-Man: No Way Home? Or, for fans of a certain vampiric anti-hero (i.e. Morbius), could it finally be "Morbin time" for Disney Plus subscribers?
In short: no. The latest Spider-Man-centric movie slated to hit Disney Plus, and debut on the platform, is 2018's Tom Hardy-starring comic book movie Venom. May along with Spider. Man: I'm going home.
Venom has found a new host. #Venom arrives May 12 at #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/speSx58aJaApril 20, 2023
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This isn't the first time (Venom aside) that a bunch of the webslinger's movies have appeared on Disney Plus. Five of Sony's Spider-Man movies joined Disney Plus UK in June 2022, these being Tobey Maguire's first two Spidey movies, the two Amazing Spider-Man movies and Homecoming, before departing a few months later. .
Meanwhile, in the United States, select Spider-Man movies are currently available on streaming services like Aha and Starz. Unlike their northern hemisphere cousins, Australian Marvel fans can now watch Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and two of Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies on Disney Plus, Paramount Plus and Binge (Marvel Spider-Man Movie: No Way Home). is also available for streaming on Binge and Prime Video).
Entangled in a web of messy license agreements
As nice as it is to see six Spider-Man movies join the Disney Plus library, the absence of other live-action and animated movies from the platform's webslinger is surprising and confusing at the same time.
So what gives? Why were The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Venom: Let There be Carnage, and Morbius left out? A tangled web of messy license agreements is to blame.
You see, until recently, Sony Pictures, the studio that owns the rights to all of the Spider-Man characters, had first-look deals with Netflix and Starz, which saw Sony's movies debut on those services (in the UK). United). respectively) some time after hitting theaters.
However, in April 2021, The Hollywood Reporter (opens in a new tab) revealed that Sony had signed two new deals, with Netflix and Disney Plus, allowing the two platforms to distribute Sony's movie library to their bases. of users.
Now, Sony movies will debut on Netflix in what's called a "first pay window," an agreement that allows such movies to join Netflix's back catalog 18 months after they hit theaters. Once that six-month window expires, Sony titles will land on Disney Plus in the "second payment window."
It's been over two years (ie 24 months) since Sony and Netflix signed this "first payment window" agreement, so the Disney Plus "second payment window" agreement has now been activated. Subsequently, Disney Plus (and Hulu, according to THR) may include certain Spider-Man movies in their libraries.
Get ready: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse debuted in theaters more than two years ago. Why aren't they coming to Disney Plus as part of this "second payment window"? According to THR, the Disney Plus deal only covers Sony's slate of theatrical movies between 2022 and 2026. Since the aforementioned trio of films fall outside of this group, they're still locked into their own weird web-style licensing deals. So it could be a while before they make the jump to Disney Plus. We've reached out to Disney to see if these movies will eventually make it to their streaming services, and we'll let you know if we hear back.
There's plenty more Spider-Man content on the way for all of us to enjoy soon. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to Into the Spider-Verse, hits theaters on June 2. Marvel and Sony are also partnering with Prime Video to create several Spider-Man TV shows, including one with Silk and another Prime Video series based on Spider-Man Noir. Finally, a fourth MCU Spider-Man movie is in development, supposedly part of Marvel Phase 5.
For more Spider-Man content, find out how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order or read our Spider-Man movies ranked article.
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