Here’s Why You Can’t Watch ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ on Disney+
Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes that was ever written and illustrated on comic book pages. It’s enough to say Spider-Man had a movie trilogy at the time when only A-list superheroes could get their movies before the genre blossomed into what it is today. Today, we have eight live-action Spider-Man movies with three different actors portraying the character. But also, Miles Morales’ Spider-Man got his own animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2018. The sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, is just around the corner, and now might be a good chance to rewatch the first movie. But, if you try to look for it at Disney+, you will not find it there, despite the rich offer of Marvel content on Disney+. And here is why.
Even though The Walt Disney Company is the owner of Marvel Studios, the rights for the on-screen adaptations of Spider-Man are owned by Sony Pictures. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was produced by Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, and Marvel Entertainment and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Sony doesn’t have its own streaming service like Disney does. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse can be found on Disney+ in some regions around the world, but in the USA, Disney and Sony do not have a deal to stream Sony’s Marvel movies for Disney+, although they recently made a deal for some live-action Spider-Man movies, but not for Into the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Man is one of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s most known creations. Since Peter Parker first appeared in 1962, the character has gained such huge popularity that countless other characters inspired by Spider-Man were created, including Spider-Woman, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Hamm, Spider-Man 2099, and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man. Thanks to Sony and Disney’s deal, Spider-Man joined Disney’s MCU in 2016. However, Sony decided to use their rights and give Miles Morales’ Spider-Man an animated movie that ultimately received universal acclaim.
How does the Spider-Man deal between Disney and Sony work?
Sony Pictures Entertainment first acquired the rights to Spider-Man in 1999, which resulted in the original movie trilogy directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire. That original franchise was supposed to continue with Spider-Man 4 before the project was scrapped after Raimi’s disagreements with the studio.
Sony rebooted the franchise, resulting in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield. Unfortunately, the reboot franchise suffered the same fate even sooner than the original movie series.
After the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, there were talks about the third installment, but the project was abandoned due to the lukewarm reception the sequel received.
At that time, Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe was upping its game to become the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time. Sony saw the opportunity there and made a deal with Disney to introduce Spider-Man to the MCU.
Although Marvel Studios served as the production company, Sony still kept the distribution rights for the standalone Spider-Man movies, while Disney still regularly distributed MCU movies in which Spider-Man appeared as the supporting character (Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame).
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man presence in the MCU was a good commercial for Sony to start their own cinematic universe based on Marvel characters they still have rights to. In 2018, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe kicked off with Venom, starring Tom Hardy.
But, apart from the live-action cinematic universe, Sony also decided to take a swim into the animation waters, resulting in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2018. Miles Morales’ Spider-Man, which was first introduced in the comics in 2011, was the main character, and the movie also starred several other Spider-characters from different parts of the Multiverse.
The movie received surprisingly huge and universal acclaim. It grossed $384.3 million worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, breaking Disney’s long tradition of winning that award.
With such a huge success, it was only a matter of time before two sequels and a series of spin-off movies were announced. Even though Sony is struggling with their live-action Marvel universe, the second movie in the Spider-Verse franchise — Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse- is one of the year’s most anticipated movies.
And that’s not all; the Spider-Verse trilogy is set to be concluded with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse next year. And the Spider-Woman spin-off movie is also in development.
Considering that Sony kept the distribution rights for Spider-Man movies set in the MCU, Disney didn’t have the right to add those movies to its streaming service. But, on April 21, 2023, the original Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire was added to the catalog of Disney+, along with The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield (only the first one).
Spider-Man: Homecoming starring Tom Holland, and the first Venom movie starring Tom Hardy, are set to be added to Disney+ on May 12. However, there’s still no word about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the rest of Sony’s Marvel movies.
What is next for live-action and animated on-screen Spider-Men?
Regardless of all the struggles with Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, what must be admitted is that Sony did two things right in the last few years.
The first one was to start the animated Spider-Verse franchise, and the second one was to culminate the entire history of live-action Spider-Man adaptations in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Which not only concluded Tom Holland’s MCU trilogy but also brought back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in their respective Spider-Man roles.
Spider-Man 4 with Tom Holland is currently in development, although many fans started asking for more solo movies with Maguire (Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4) and Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man 3) as well. But the question is how achievable those projects are at this moment.
If you want to rewatch Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse before the sequel’s release, you can rent it on Apple TV or Amazon Prime. The Spider-Verse franchise will continue on June 2, 2023, with the long-awaited Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The trilogy will conclude with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which is set to be released on March 29, 2024.
