Marvel might be in uncharted waters if Spider-Man is the key to upcoming MCU phases

Ravikumar N Sun, August 23, 2026 at 2:26 PM UTC

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day ©YouTube/Spider-Man

Spider-Man: Brand New Day's juggernaut success has Marvel fans hyped for Avengers: Doomsday, which is releasing this December. The fourth Spider-Man movie sets up Peter Parker as a central figure in the upcoming two Avengers movies and even the next phase, i.e., the Mutant Saga. But this move might be a huge risk for the MCU because of real-world restrictions.

For those who are unaware, Spider-Man is a tricky character for the MCU, because Marvel Studios does not own the film rights to Spider-Man, Sony does that. That means the MCU can't freely use the Wall-Crawler as they could with Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther, or Black Widow.

How is Spider-Man supposed to play a major role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Early this month, the Russo Brothers celebrated the success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day with an image of Spider-Man wearing rings bearing the infinity stones on one hand and holding the king chess piece on another. Many believe that Spider-Man holding the king chess piece is a reference to Robert Downey Jr. posting an Avengers: Doomsday chess art on his Instagram stories.

Avengers: Doomsday artwork | Image Via: Instagram/robertdowneyjr

In this image, the king piece looms large over the board, and the shadow of the piece is in the shape of Doctor Doom's silhouette. Right in front of the King piece in the bottom left corner is a spider, meaning Spider-Man will be the key for defeating Doom in Avengers: Secret Wars.

Also, Spider-Man: Brand New Day reveals that Peter Parker has modified Hulk's inhibitor collar to dampen any type of powers, including that of the mutants. Peter's creation will come back to haunt the mutants, including the X-Men, in the next Marvel Cinematic Universe phase. Therefore, the wall-crawler has inadvertently doomed the mutants in the MCU.

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This storyline paints Spider-Man in a light in which the character has never been seen on the big screen before. But this entire premise rests on one condition:

Sony and Marvel's relationship remains cordial:

50th Anniversary Of The Saturn Awards - Portraits - Source: Getty

The Wall-Crawler made his MCU debut a decade ago with Captain America: Civil War because of a deal between the two studios. But Sony still owns the film rights for Spider-Man, and according to this deal, the MCU can just lease the character on the theatrical movies. Conversely, Sony can also use MCU characters like Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Yelena Belova, and Frank Castle in solo Spider-Man movies under this deal.

This deal has been mutually beneficial, and it seems to be fine for now, but things could turn on a dime like it did in August 2019. At that time, the deal broke down between the two rival studios, which meant that the MCU could no longer use Spider-Man and associated characters like Ned and MJ. However, this problem got resolved just a month later in September of the same year.

But this small stumbling block showed that the deal between these two studios could break down. Therefore, if the MCU and its architects want to paint Spider-Man as a key player in the ongoing and upcoming phases, it needs to be sure that the deal between the Disney subsidiary and Sony needs to stay strong for the forthcoming future.

Do you think that Spider-Man will continue to be a key player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”