Why is the spiderman movies not on disney plus

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If you’re a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, then Disney+ is a must-have, as the streaming service is home to most of the franchise’s movies… most being the key word. Because The Incredible Hulk and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies are set up at Universal Pictures and Sony Pictures, respectively, they’re not available on Disney+. Fortunately for fans of Marvel’s current cinematic Web-Slinger, he’ll soon be swinging over to the Mouse House’s platform, and he won’t be alone.

Disney and Sony have announced a a multi-year content licensing agreement for United States streaming and TV rights that will allow for theatrically-released Sony movies from 2022-2026 to be shown on Disney’s various platforms, including Disney+ and Hulu. Most notably, Disney will have access to a significant number of Sony’s “iconic library titles,” including Spider-Man and the other properties in Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel Characters, as well as the Jumanji and Hotel Transylvania franchises. Hulu will gain access to various library titles starting as early as June.

So not only will MCU fans finally be able to enjoy Tom Holland’s Spider-Man adventures alongside nearly every other MCU movie on Disney+ (there’s been no word on if Disney and Universal can come to an arrangement on The Incredible Hulk), but the official announcement saying that Disney will be a “key” destination for a “robust collection of Spider-Man films” presumably means older Wall-Crawler-centric movies will also be available. It’s unclear if Spider-Man-adjacent movies like Venom and Morbius will also go on Disney+ or be put on Hulu. Either way, don’t forget that this deal doesn’t just apply to Disney’s streaming services; ABC, the Disney Channels, Freeform, FX and National Geographic will also get in on the fun.

All this being said, when it comes to upcoming Sony movies, you shouldn’t expect them to hit Disney + and/or Hulu immediately after their theatrical runs are over. You’ll recall that earlier this month, it was announced that Sony and Netflix struck up their own special pact, which will give the latter streaming service an 18-month exclusivity window for new Sony movies after they’ve played on the big screen and come out on home media. This pact takes effect in 2022, so once these Sony movies have had their time to shine on Netflix, then they’ll had over to Disney’s platforms.

Up next: Spider-Man: No Way Home Rumor Teases The Return Of A Beloved Marvel Character

As far as the already-released Spider-Man movies goes, there’s no word on when they’ll start hitting Disney+ and/or Hulu. However, with Spider-Man: No Way Home currently scheduled to drop in December, it just barely misses the cut for being part of the 2022-2026 slate, although I suspect there’s still a decent chance that the movie could be delayed to next year. In any case, while it’ll take longer for Spider-Man movies and Sony properties to make their way to Disney+ (which you can subscribe to with this link), eventually they’ll get to nestle nicely in there. Though that’s not to say that Disney+ is entirely lacking in Spider-Man content right now, as there are a handful of cartoons subscribers can watch.

As far as what’s head for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, no plot details for Spider-Man: No Way Home have been revealed yet, but the story will involve the hero clashing with Jamie Foxx’s Electro and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus. Holland is also expected to reprise Peter in another Marvel Studios movie, but it hasn’t been revealed yet which one. Elsewhere in the multiverse, the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 will see Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales and Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy reuniting, and Spider-Man 2099 and Takuya Yamashiro (the Japanese Spider-Man) are also expected to appear.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is primed for a December 17 release, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 will follow on October 7, 2022. If you’re curious about what else the MCU franchise has coming up, head over to our upcoming Marvel movies guide.

Disney+ has now added Eternals to it service, just over two months after the film first came to theaters. With the addition of Chloé Zhao's Marvel movie, the service now has 23 films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

But, as Marvel fans will know, there are 27 total films in the MCU so far, meaning that four are missing. These are the 2008 Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton, plus the three MCU Spider-Man movies starring Tom Holland—that is, Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home.

You may think that No Way Home is not on Disney+ only because it came out too recently, but you would be wrong—there are currently no plans for it or any of these four other movies to come to the service in the next few years.

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Why Four MCU Movies Are Not on Disney+

The reason for this is due to some complicated contractual deals, some of which pre-exist the creation of Disney+.

Let's look at The Incredible Hulk first. The early years of the MCU, between Iron Man and Captain America: The First Avenger, the films were distributed by other studios—Universal for The Incredible Hulk and Paramount Pictures for the other four. This means that those studios get to decide where those first five films stream...

...Or, at least, they did until Disney acquired the distribution rights to four of them in July 2013. That month, they acquired the rights to Iron Mans 1 and 2, Thor and the first Captain America.

Disney did not, however, purchase the rights to The Incredible Hulk, meaning it still lies with Universal. Of the four missing films, this is the one where there are currently no plans to bring it to Disney+—it currently is not streaming on any service in the U.S., though, so all Disney+ would have to do to get it would be to make an offer.

The Spidey trilogy is more complicated, as Sony still owns the rights to Spider-Man, after purchasing them from Marvel when the company was in a more financially precarious position.

Spider-Man appears in the MCU as part of a deal between Sony and Marvel in which the character appears in his own MCU films as well as co-starring in films like Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. However, Sony owns the distribution rights to the films where Peter Parker is a main character and keeps most of the profits for itself.

That means that Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home end up on whatever streaming services Sony has deals with.

Currently, that is Starz, where the first two Spider-Man films are streaming.

Eventually, the three Spider-Man films will come to Disney+, but not for a while. Sony has made a deal with Netflix that gives the company what are called "pay one window" rights to its films, while Disney+ has the rights after that.

The average "pay one window" is 18 months. In effect, this means that No Way Home will first come to Netflix once it starts streaming in around six months and will then stay there for a year and a half before coming to Disney+. This means that No Way Home will join the other movies, but not until early 2024 at the earliest.

The first two MCU Spider-Man films could come earlier than that, though Sony has not revealed exactly what is moving to which service when.

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