More Marvel/Sony Spider-Man details have surfaced

While we’re surely in for months and months of speculation about the new Marvel/Sony partnership re: Spider-Man, The Hollywood Reporter, who initially broke the big news last night, revealed a few new details regarding what the future of Marvel’s premiere superhero looks like.

Here are the pertinent details of note:

– It’s not really a surprise, but Amazing Spider-Man series director Marc Webb is out, and Sony, who has final casting say over who gets to play Spider-Man, is looking for an actor that is “much younger” than the 31 year old Andrew Garfield. I liked Garfield fine, even if his Peter was a bit too “cool” for my taste, but Webb wasn’t a great fit for the franchise. Sadly, the results bore that out, and some really bad scripts didn’t help.

– The two studios exchanged no actual cash in the deal, but Sony will retain 60% of the ticket sales, while Marvel hangs onto its merchandising rights. The latter, according to an unnamed source, is cited as the motivating factor for this entire deal on Sony’s side.

– Avi Arad, long-time Spider-Man producer, along with Matt Tolmach have been bumped into Executive Producer roles and will have “no real say in the creative direction of the franchise”. I can hear your sighs of relief.

The report also goes on to speculate about how this is likely the first step of Marvel getting the character back fully, which is quite possible, and even that Disney may purchase Sony outright should it ever become available. I’d initially label that as speculation run a bit too rampant, but this is Disney we’re talking about. I’ll never doubt their purchasing power again.

There’s also no word about Drew Goddard‘s status, he who was supposed to direct Sinister Six and left Daredevil to do so. The Wall Street Journal (via ComingSoon) was reporting that Sinister Six will simply be delayed, but given the status quo shift and Kevin Feige‘s creative involvement in the new Spider-Man series, that seems unlikely.