Marvel Studios
Well, that certainly escalated quickly. It didn’t take very long for Sony’s decision to remove Tom Holland’s Spider-Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to spark a firestorm of anger and anxiety from fans.
After being vilified for what every Marvel fan views as a collossal blunder, Sony eventually issued a statement basically laying the blame for Spider-Man’s departure from the MCU at Disney’s feet.
The outrage from Marvel fans has been so overwhelming that, as of this writing, three of the top five trending spots on U.S. Twitter are #SaveSpidey, #SaveSpiderManFromSony, and #SpiderManBelongsInTheMCU. Soooo much venom. (Sorry. Not really.)
Marvel fans have even launched a Facebook event to “Storm Sony” in the same vein as the viral “Storm Area 51” movement with over 1,200 people already saying they will be attending.
Fans have also started up numerous petitions on Change.org demanding Spider-Man be returned to Marvel Studios.
There have also been a multitude of calls for Marvel fans to boycott Sony films and even PlayStation 4.
If anyone needs the list of what films to avoid this year #boycottSony pic.twitter.com/OcjUTCZl9H
— Em (@Shadowstitches) August 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/TumQuick/status/1163923030206140416
Even some of Marvel’s actors like Ryan Reynolds and Jeremy Renner have weighed in with their takes on Sony pulling the plug on Peter Parker appearing in Marvel Studios films and vice versa.
You can. But you can only see it in my heart.
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 20, 2019
Hey @sonypictures we want Spider-Man back to @therealstanlee and @marvel please, thank you #congrats #spidermanrocks #🏹 #please https://t.co/fCqafozaEl
— Jeremy Renner (@JeremyRenner) August 21, 2019
So yeah, Sony has created quite the sh*tstorm.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is the highest-grossing film in Sony’s history, grossing more than $1.1 billion worldwide, so maybe they are just feeling themselves and are playing hardball with Disney (can’t blame them for that), but if they do stick with removing Spider-Man from MCU films then don’t underestimate Marvel fans’ willingness to follow through on all those boycotts they are threatening.