Last night the internet broke when Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures jointly announced that the two studios will be teaming up to allow Spider-Man to appear finally in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is a deal that is almost a decade in the making since Marvel sold the film rights to the character back in the 1990s. Now The Hollywood Reporter has learned some interesting specifics on the deal. First they say that Avi Arad & Matt Tolmach (who many fans dislike greatly) have been demoted to Executive Producers which is simply in name only. They will have “no real say in the creative direction of the franchise.” Again the site reiterates that Andrew Garfield is unfortunately out as Peter Parker and the hunt for a much young actor is currently underway. Many fans have already thrown out names like Logan Lerman (Perks of Being a Wallflower), Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner), Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Zac Efron (Neighbors) or even Drake Bell (Peter Parker on Ultimate Spider-Man) as possible replacements. Lastly, the site reveals that the upcoming solo flick will not be another origin story of Peter Parker but Peter Parker will still be a teenage hero. Something Marvel Studios has yet to reveal in their current slate of superhero movies.
They also reveal that Marvel and Disney offered Sony Pictures billions of dollars to simply buy back Spider-Man but the studio refused. This seems to be the first step for Marvel to full retain the rights either by purchasing the character or simply buying out Sony Entertainment as a whole.
My understanding is Sony's next Spider-Man movie will not be an origin story. Which shouldn't be surprising.
— Ben Fritz (@benfritz) February 10, 2015