MCU Live-Action Shows Can’t Feature Spider-Man Because of Sony: “They have long-form television rights”

Marvel Studios’ upcoming fourth installment of the Tom Holland starrer Spider-Man 4 is one of the highly awaited movies. Back in 2015, Sony Pictures announced a deal to collaborate with Marvel Studios to integrate Spider-Man’s character into the MCU. 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming was followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019, and Spider-Man: No Way Home was released in 2021.

In 2023, Tom Holland, who had shared that No Way Home was treated as the end of a franchise, shared that he was in discussions with Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal about returning for the fourth installment. On various occasions, the actor has mentioned that they want to do justice to the character, which is why they are taking time. But now, Brad Winderbaum has shared something very interesting about Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and the MCU.

Marvel’s Brad Winderbaum explains why Spider-Man cannot appear in live-action shows

Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum recently spoke to Phase Hero, where he was asked if Tom Holland, who plays Spider-Man in the MCU, can appear in a TV series. To this, he said (Comic Book Movie),

I’m not sure exactly what the rules are, but I think they [Sony] have long-form television rights. I think we can do 30-minute animation.

Winderbaum had spoken to the publication ahead of the release of MCU’s Daredevil: Born Again starring Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio. The series is set to pick up after the conclusion of Daredevil’s Netflix series. Even though Winderbaum has confirmed that Spider-Man cannot appear in a full-fledged MCU’s live-action series, he can surely be referenced.

The stars of Daredevil: Born Again appeared on Jake’s Takes, where they confirmed that the show gets to acknowledge the MCU’s Spider-Man. According to The Direct, Wilson Fisk makes a brief reference to a kid who is dressed like a spider, referencing Spidey.

The publication noted that Sony Pictures holds the live-action and television rights for the character and all of his associated characters, which Marvel, after their deal in 2015, was able to use. But those characters are only used for feature films and not for television.

Spider-Man and Daredevil have a friendship in the comics, and in MCU’s No Way Home, Cox as Matt Murdock appeared as Peter Parker’s lawyer. Ardent fans want the two characters to appear together on-screen, but it seems like a special deal needs to be made.

Tom Holland’s starrer Spider-Man 4 set to release two weeks after The Odyssey’s release

Tom Holland is set to star in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming project The Odyssey and is also set to reprise his fan-favorite character of Spider-Man in the fourth installment. So, according to reports by Variety, Sony Pictures moved the release date for Spider-Man 4 from July 24, 2026, to July 31st.

Earlier, Sony’s Spider-Man would have been released just a week after The Odyssey, but now it gives Holland some breathing room as it releases two weeks after the release of The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan’s movie also stars Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, and more.

Zendaya, who is rumored to reprise her character of MJ in Spider-Man 4, is going to get little screen time compared to previous movies because of her schedule with Dune 3. She has been appreciated for her work in the Dune series, in which she stars as Chani opposite Timothée Chalamet.

The fourth installment is going to be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and producer Amy Pascal has shared that the ending of No Way Home is going to directly tie into the next stage of Peter Parker’s life. She added (via CBR),

We have to deal with the fact that he decided he was going to give up being Peter Parker and he was going to focus on being Spider-Man because being Peter Parker was too hard. So that is what the movie is about.

Not much is known about MCU’s upcoming Spider-Man 4 except the fact that it’s going to be released on 31st July 2026, and the writers are working really hard to give the character proper justice. Holland believes that because they have a legacy to protect, they have to be super-conscious.