A new petition has gained nearly 80,000 signatures to keep Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fans were caught off guard by the recent news about Marvel Studios and Sony severing ties. They have gone out of their way to let the world know how they feel. Marvel fans were not happy to learn that Tom Holland's Spider-Man will not be in the MCU moving forward and that Sony will take sole control, unless a deal is made in the near future.
Fans mobilized right after the Sony and Marvel Studios news dropped and have been trying to figure out ways to get their voices heard. A Facebook event, modeled after the Storm Area 51 event, was started and already has over 7,000 supporters pledging to storm the offices of Sony, though that will more than likely never happen. And now, a petition has been set up to "Keep Spider-Man with Disney and the MCU" and it has nearly 80,000 signatures, as of this writing.
At this time, fans seem to be taking out their anger on Sony, even though we don't have all of the facts. The studio did release an official statement noting that Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was too busy to participate with the Spider-Man franchise and that they were disappointed. However, insiders claim that Sony thinks it doesn't need Feige and his playbook anymore after the success of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is now their highest grossing movie of all time. Adding to the trouble on the other side is the assumption from some fans that Disney is behind bots helping to get pro-Disney tweets on the matter going viral.
When it comes down to it, each studio needs the other to keep Spider-Man as popular as he currently is. Marvel Studios doesn't get the highest grossing movie of all time with Avengers: Endgame without Sony lending Tom Holland to the cause. And the same can be said for Sony. Spider-Man: Far From Home doesn't cross the $1 billion mark without the help of Kevin Feige and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With that being said, if both studios don't reach a deal, it will be very interesting to see how Sony continues on without the help of Marvel.
Currently, there is a lot of talk, but no real confirmation from either side in terms of the real reasoning for not reaching a deal. Obviously, money is the main factor and it is believed that Marvel Studios wanted a bigger cut of the profits this time around, which is understandable. However, it looks like they may have been asking for too much and Sony, understandably, is not willing to budge. In the meantime, fans are trying to do everything they can to bring Spider-Man back to the MCU. You can head over to Change.org if you'd like to sign the petition.