Yesterday, it was reported that Drew Goddard ("Cabin in the Woods") is the favorite to write and direct the first Spider-Man film since Sony and Marvel agreed to share the rights to the character. Goddard was preparing to write Sony's "Sinister Six" - of which he left Marvel's Daredevil project at Netflix to do -- before underwhelming box office results killed that plan for the time being. But when one door closes, another, more popular and awesome door opens.
Today, it is being rumored that Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man will appear in Spidey's first new film. You may all have a brief recess to geek out about this information now.
"As an added bonus, and this will boost excitement in a big way from the larger causal moviegoing audiences, Spider-Man may battle it out with Iron Man in his first movie," Rob Keyes of ScreenRant.com wrote. "This would explain why it was Robert Downey Jr. teasing the major announcement last week on behalf of Marvel. Such a team-up would be very symbolic of the Marvel-Sony arrangement, putting their most bankable, poster boy characters together on screen to help relaunch the Spider-Man brand in the biggest way possible at the box office."
RDJ has said in the past that he doesn't want to continue to suit up unless the studio can offer interesting storylines. That is why he'll be a prominent figure in "Captain America: Civil War" and that is likely why a Spider-Man crossover would appeal to him as well.
Sony will benefit greatly from this as well as Tony Stark is arguably the most popular (and certainly the most appealing at the box office) character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His presence will help generate the type of box office returns "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" failed to reach.
Overall, the biggest winners of such a deal are the fans. Seeing Iron Man and Spider-Man together will help feed audience's desires for crossovers and shared universe building.
