SPIDER-MAN Update: Casting Young, Spin-Off Info & More

Spider-Man has been on the brain all day for geeks around the world following the landmark announcement last night that the character would be heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and be getting a new standalone film in 2017. (Watch Hugh Jackman react to the news right here, and read about what the new Phase 3 release schedule here.) A little bit of information has trickled out since last night, so I figured I'd round some of that up for you in one easy-to-digest piece.

First off: Marvel reportedly paid Sony Pictures $0 for the right to use Spidey in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War, The Avengers franchise, or any other movie. Variety reports that each studio will basically keep its own earnings at the box office, though Marvel stands to make a boatload of money from the merchandising of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. It seems that Sony knows its in a position of needing Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios much more than Feige needs Spider-Man.

We already knew that Andrew Garfield would no longer be playing Peter Parker, but the report also confirms that Sony is recasting Spider-Man as a younger high school student, which sounds like a good way to distinguish this version of the character from the rest of the Avengers. There's no official word on casting yet, but expect that announcement soon if the character is going to have any legitimate part in Civil War. (We have some ideas right here.)

And finally, one of the big questions that's come from all of this is what about the spin-offs Sony had planned for their franchise? I'll let Variety tell you:

The studio is still moving forward with the Spider-Man villain-centric “Sinister Six,” and “Venom” spinoff, as well as a film that features female characters in the “Spider-Man” universe. “The Amazing Spider-Man 3″ has been cancelled. While Marvel’s Feige is involved with Sony’s new “Spider-Man” films, he currently is not expected to be creatively involved with the spinoffs, sources say.

So that officially confirms the idea of a film centered on the female characters in the Spider-verse, which up until now was nothing more than a rumor. That's good news in theory, but without Feige producing those movies, will they be as good? It depends. Sony is in a position to make some serious changes right now, and if they put, say, Phil Lord and Chris Miller in charge of the Spidey franchise in the same way that Zack Snyder is overseeing the DC characters, then things could be looking up for Sony. We know the characters can work; at this point, it's just about finding the right people who can make them work in the right way.