Dave Bautista Thinks Spider-Man Rights Are Going Back To Marvel Studios

When Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures announced a partnership that would allow Spider-Man to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans lost their minds. The fact that Sony had the rights to Spider-Man initially meant that Marvel Studios previously could never bring the wallcrawler into a movie with The Avengers, but Tom Holland debuted as the webslinger in Captain America: Civil War, and now he gets his own new franchise starting with Spider-Man: Homecoming in July.

The future of Spider-Man will already include the next installment of The Avengers franchise and a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming, but that's currently as far as the partnership between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures goes, according to Kevin Feige. However, if Guardians of the Galaxy franchise star and Avengers: Infinity War cast member Dave Bautista is to be believed, there's a chance Marvel Studios may end up being completely in control of Spider-Man's future again. Find out more below.

Dave Bautista was recently a guest on Podcast One (via Bleeding Cool) to promote Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and while talking about his excitement for Spider-Man: Homecoming, he dropped an interesting tidbit of information about where the Spider-Man rights are headed, albeit with some uncertainty. Bautista said:

"Spider-Man is the one I'm really looking forward to. I love that kid – I love Tom Holland. I also love that they're staying so true to the comics with this whole series and I think that's because Marvel Studios has gotten involved. I think before, I think it was Sony who had control. And I think they're doing a partnership now, but I think they will – I don't know this for sure – but I think they're going to re-acquire Spider-Man."

Bautista is careful to be cautious about offering up this information, but considering how well the introduction of this new Spider-Man has gone so far, it wouldn't be a surprise if Marvel Studios spent the money to get Spider-Man back under their banner without having to collaborate with Sony Pictures anymore. Of course, there appears to be evidence to the contrary.

Don't forget that Sony Pictures just set a 2018 release date for a Venom spin-off that will be an R-rated sci-fi movie with no ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There has also been talk of them developing a film that focuses on Black Cat and Silver Sable. Would Sony still be developing those movies if Marvel Studios was is in the midst of getting the rights to Spider-Man back? There might be a chance that Marvel is just looking to get the rights to only Spider-Man while letting all the ancillary characters stay at Sony, but that seems highly unlikely.

Personally, I can't imagine that Sony Pictures would be willing to let Spider-Man go back to Marvel Studios, because it would make the other characters from the webslinger's universe inherently less valuable. For now, I would assume that Dave Bautista is wrong, but there's always a chance that the past couple months have resulted in discussions between Marvel and Sony that will change how Spider-Man is handled on the big screen after this initial partnership between the studios expires. Maybe we'll hear more about this closer to the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming.