Here's why the MCU's Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 wasn't delayed with the rest of the Phase 4 films. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, essentially all of Hollywood has shut down for the foreseeable future. The 2020 release calendar has been wiped clear through the end of July, and several projects that were currently in production are on hiatus until it's safe to resume filming (whenever that may be). Not even the Marvel juggernaut is immune to the ongoing crisis, and they've been forced to reshuffle their upcoming plans as they look to launch the MCU's next era.

Black Widow, which was originally supposed to come out in May, was pushed back to November, taking the date previously held by Eternals. It goes without saying that had a domino effect on the rest of Phase 4, and just about every other upcoming movie Marvel has in the pipeline was delayed. Spider-Man 3 is one of the rare exceptions, still slated for its July 2021 debut. At first glance, it seems odd that one's staying where it was, but there's a good explanation for that.

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Unlike the rest of Phase 4, which will be distributed by Disney, Spider-Man 3 is a Sony film. That means Sony is in charge of determining when the movie is released, and Disney doesn't have a say in the matter. It is possible the two studios could work together to move Spider-Man 3 if need be (depending on where it's supposed to fit in the Phase 4 timeline), but whether or not it does will ultimately be Sony's call to make.

Tom Holland as Spider-Man in Spider-Man Homecoming

And, with the way things are going, Sony may not have a choice but to delay Spider-Man 3. It was aiming to start principal photography this summer, though it remains to be seen if that can actually happen. Word is the postponed productions won't be able to resume until mid-May at the earliest - and that window is seen as overly optimistic. As a result, the thought is other 2021 blockbusters like The Batman and The Matrix 4 will have to move since they'll be unable to finish shooting on time. And those films were in the midst of production at the time of the pandemic. Spider-Man 3 is in a similar boat to Shazam 2 and Black Adam, both of which are expecting to be delayed. It stands reason to believe Spider-Man 3 will have to wait longer to get the cameras rolling, which in turn would lead to its release getting pushed back.

Coincidentally, Sony is also behind the Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland, which is another factor to consider when discussing this topic. The video game adaptation had literally just started filming when it was shut down because of the pandemic, so Sony will have to juggle things around when business operations are up and running again (Uncharted is scheduled to come out in October 2021). But again, Spider-Man's future is entirely in Sony's hands. Disney stands to make a cut of the box office grosses and can use Peter Parker in an upcoming MCU movie, but the character's film rights remain with Sony, so they're the ones who make decisions on when Spider-Man films get released.

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