If you’re an avid fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a subscriber to Disney+ for that sole reason, you’ve likely felt the absence of the newer Spider-Man films on the house of mouse’s streaming service. Due to a contractual agreement between Disney and Sony that gave Sony more control over the web-slinger, Spidey has been kept off of Disney+ since its launch in 2019. That may soon be changing.
Both Disney and Sony have reached an agreement that will see the Spider-Man MCU films end up on Disney+…eventually. The actual deal concerns the “post-day-1” release window and encompasses all of Sony’s properties. This means not only will the wall-crawler show up on Disney+, but films like Jumanji and Hotel Transylvania are now eligible.
The official announcement stated that this deal “gives Disney enormous programming potential across its platforms and makes them key destinations for a robust collection of Spider-Man films.” That’s not even limited to MCU productions, meaning something like Into The Spider-Verse and Venom are fair game.
Thing is, the deal specifies that all releases during the 2022-2026 window will find a home on Disney+ after their runs on Netflix. That sort of sours the deal as most people have both a Disney+ and Netflix subscription. Why not just stream certain films on a rival platform at an earlier date?
If you happen to have Hulu instead of Disney+, this deal will also see a number of Sony’s films and TV shows wind up on that particular streaming service. This is said to begin happening as early as June, meaning a lot more content is heading your way in the not-so-distant future.
There are more specifics to this deal that I can’t quite wrap my head around, but it does mean that Disney+ is set to grow in the coming years. With Spider-Man finally sitting alongside the rest of the MCU on Disney+, that may just prove instrumental in getting the company up to its fabled “230-260 million subscribers” goal.
Source: Deadline
