Spider-Man’s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in question after a report published earlier this week revealed that talks between Sony and Disney fell through. And while many fans (and Jeremy Renner) have taken to social media to ask both studios to make it work, some fans want to take their requests in-person.
After the news broke on Tuesday, three Spider-Man fans created a Facebook event page titled “Storm Sony And Bring Spider-Man Home To The MCU.” Taking place on Oct. 19 at both Sony’s corporate office in New York and Sony Pictures’ office in Culver City, California, the event calls for participants to dress up as Spider-Man to show Sony that they want Spider-Man back in the MCU.
“We storm Sony Pictures in solidarity dressed in Spider-Man costumes and bring our boy home!” the event description read. “This is a peaceful demonstration and violence will not be tolerated.”
So far, 7,371 people indicated that they will attend the event. Despite the event page title, there’s nothing to suggest that fans will actually storm Sony’s offices to take Spider-Man; the event organizers emphasized that it would be a peaceful demonstration. (Whereas the “Storm Area 51” Facebook event started out as a meme but became a thing after a lot of attendees actually planned to travel to Area 51.)
It’s the next step in fans showing Disney and Sony how important it is to them that Spider-Man returns to the MCU. It’s easy to post something online (and takes very little effort), but going to the studios themselves, as fans of The OA planned to do when the show was canceled, takes it to another level.
Spider-Man’s future is still uncertain, but right now, the fight is largely playing out in the press. The initial story revealed that Spider-Man might leave the MCU after Sony wouldn’t accept Disney’s proposal of a 50/50 partnership on future Spider-Man movies, leading Disney to exit negotiations. Sony later clarified that the Spider-Man dispute was over a producer credit for Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige.
Sony’s decision to not accept Disney’s proposal has been interpreted both as Disney being too greedy for asking that much of Sony and Sony not being grateful for Marvel Studios (which is owned by Disney) helping make two highly successful Spider-Man movies. So far, fans have largely placed the blame for the falling out at Sony’s feet, including the use of several fake accounts copying and pasting messages that call for Sony to let Spider-Man return to the MCU.
To some fans, the actual details of the dispute won’t matter because it’s framed emotionally for them: the fate of Spider-Man’s role in the MCU. It doesn’t matter if Sony thinks that Disney proposed an unfair deal or what details they need to iron out. To some of them, Sony is preventing Spider-Man from playing in Disney’s sandbox, and well, that makes them the villains in this story. And as more people hash out the story, it’s the one that just might stick.
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