A couple of months ago, after Spider-Man: Far From Home became Sony’s highest grossing movie ever, the studio decided to ditch Marvel and break out on its own with the Spider-Man franchise, forgetting that 90% of Far From Home’s success can be attributed to its connection to Avengers: Endgame.
MCU fans decried Spidey’s exit from the franchise, so Disney and Sony continued talks and eventually came to an agreement. Spidey will be featured in another MCU solo movie and one further installment, but after that, he might need to depart once and for all. So, here are 10 ways Spider-Man could be written out of the MCU.
He’ll leave the Avengers
If Peter Parker quits being an Avenger and just focuses on being Queens’ friendly neighborhood superhero, then there will be no reason for the MCU to reference him ever again. This would rehash the ending of Spider-Man: Homecoming, in which he made the same decision, but then that story thread was thrown out the window when he was required to join Earth’s mightiest heroes in the fight against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
Marvel fans will be willing to give the MCU the benefit of the doubt when it comes to explaining why Spidey won’t be around anymore, because most fans aware of the behind-the-scenes problems.
He disappears into the Sony universe via the multiverse
The MCU is about to lean into the idea of the multiverse, with Doctor Strange exploring it in his next standalone outing and Disney+’s What If...? series delving into hypothetical scenarios. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Mysterio was lying about coming from a parallel reality, but Peter Parker did prove that he understands the concept of the multiverse before that was revealed as a deceit.
Perhaps when Strange digs into the multiverse, Peter will come to his aid and end up getting flung across the spacetime continuum into Sony’s universe, and the world where Venom exists and the Snap didn’t happen will become his new home.
He retires after recruiting the Young Avengers
With characters like Kate Bishop and Ms. Marvel getting introduced into the MCU via their own series on Disney+, some fans are expecting the Young Avengers to show up in the franchise.
Maybe Peter Parker will be the one to recruit them all and get them together, and once he’s confident that they can carry out the team’s duties on their own, he’ll retire from being a superhero. At a certain point, there will be so many superheroes operating in the world that the veterans will be able to retire. Spidey’s hardly a veteran, but he is in need of a way out.
The Fantastic Four inspire Spidey to stay in New York
There have been all kinds of rumors about Spider-Man teaming up with the Fantastic Four in the MCU, saying that he’ll either develop a rapport with the Human Torch like in the comics or get mentored by an older character for the umpteenth time when Reed Richards takes him under his flexible wing.
Such a team-up would be a great final blowout for Spider-Man as a part of this interconnected comic book universe, a great way to integrate the Fantastic Four into the franchise in the first place, and could even be a great way to write Spidey out of the MCU.
His stories just continue in the Sony franchise without mention of the MCU
After the MCU releases its third Spider-Man solo movie, Sony could continue his story with a fourth solo movie that simply doesn’t mention the MCU. References to the wider MCU have dragged down the MCU’s Spidey adventures anyway.
Characters like Ned, M.J., Flash, and Aunt May can still appear in Spider-Man movies alongside Peter Parker. Peter will just stop talking about being an Avenger and stealing Captain America’s shield and living up to Tony Stark’s legacy. If anything, that’ll make these movies even better, because the focus will be squarely on Spidey himself. And fans wouldn’t find it strange, because they’re aware of how rights work.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will team up with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions
A lot of avenues for stories were opened up by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Some fans have been hoping for a live-action Spider-Verse movie in which the versions of Peter Parker from the Tobey Maguire movies, the Andrew Garfield movies, and the Tom Holland movies all team up via the multiverse, much in the same way that Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and Peter B. Parker did in Into the Spider-Verse.
This could even be a way for Holland’s Spidey to be written out of the MCU, depending on how Sony decides to set up the premise. Fans will happily indulge any excuse to make this happen.
The Sinister Six keep Spidey occupied
The MCU’s Spider-Man solo series has been slowly building up the Sinister Six, from leaving Adrian Toomes alive at the end of Homecoming to hinting at Oscorp in Far From Home. If the team finally comes together when Peter Parker’s identity is revealed to the world, then they could keep the character occupied for a while.
With a squad of six supervillains dedicated entirely to crushing Spider-Man, fully aware of his alter ego, Peter will be too wrapped up in his own problems to join the Avengers’ next fight. This can be how he segues into standalone stories in the Sony franchise.
He joins Nick Fury and S.W.O.R.D. in space
The post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home shockingly revealed that Nick Fury hadn’t really been on Earth the entire time. Instead, Talos was disguised as Fury and Fury was hanging out on a spaceship with a bunch of Skrulls.
Marvel fans have deduced that Fury is setting up S.W.O.R.D., which is sort of an intergalactic S.H.I.E.L.D. focused on protecting Earth from cosmic threats. If Peter Parker goes on the run following the revelation of his identity and decides the only way to protect the people he loves is to get off the planet, he could go off to hide with Fury.
The other MCU characters simply stop mentioning Spider-Man
Spider-Man’s existence in the wider MCU is anchored by other characters mentioning him, like when Bruce Banner said, “There’s an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?” If Marvel just nips all these references to Spider-Man in the bud and stops making Spider-Man movies, then the problem will be solved.
The MCU has enough characters now that, while Spidey will be missed, his absence won’t be felt too much by the Avengers themselves. Spidey’s closest link in the Avengers was Tony Stark and he’s gone now, so there’s no compelling reason why characters like Black Panther or Doctor Strange or Captain Marvel would ever mention him in their own stories.
He dies in Avengers 5
There is currently no official release date for a fifth Avengers film, but Kevin Feige has said that he has a clear idea of what the line-up in Avengers 5 will look like. Some fans have speculated that the plot of Avengers 5 will be based on the “Secret Wars” storyline, and this could end with Spider-Man being killed.
His death could be that movie’s big emotional climax. This would make it tricky for Sony to use Spidey in their own Marvel universe, especially since they intend to continue using Tom Holland’s version of the character, but that’s Sony’s problem.