Spider-Man joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the return of the Alien franchise: My thoughts

February 2015 has seen two major stories from the film industry, so in a first for this blog I thought I’d share my thoughts on them. Keep an eye out for my reactions to the Oscars in a few days' time.

Spiderman joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe

After fourteen years of ownership, Sony has reached an agreement with Marvel on Spider-Man, allowing him to not only be rebooted again, but also join the likes of Iron Man, Captain America and Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point in the future. A new Spiderman film set in the MCU is set to arrive in in 2017 with Sony maintaining full creative control over the character, along with the upcoming Sinister Six spin-off in 2016. On the other side of the coin Marvel will work out ways to integrate the webslinger in with The Avengers and possibly other projects yet to come.

So how will the move affect the Spider-Man character? Well with the cancellation of The Amazing Spider-Man 3, it’s safe to assume that Marvel is one step closer of Spider-Man from now on. Considering the mixed reactions to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Marvel’s proven track record with superhero films, this should prove very beneficial. Whilst Marvel still doesn’t have full creative control just yet, it’s a good step forward that has the potential to result in better quality Spiderman films.

The return of the Alien franchise

After nearly twenty years, Neil Blomkamp, director of the fan favourite District 9 and its pseudo-successor Chappie has finalised a deal with 20^th Century Fox to produce a brand new Alien film. The movie is currently rumoured to be set several years after Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus sequel. Fox is hoping that Blomkamp will “take the Alien franchise to the next level” which is certainly possible given District 9’s critical and commercial success.

If you’ve seen my review of the original Alien, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the franchise, but with this new project it’s hard to tell what Blomkamp will do with Alien 5. Will it be a side story of sorts or will it link back to events in the previous films? It’s unknown whether Sigourney Weaver is still attached to the project but truth be told, I’d want to see an Alien movie without her for a change. Fox had the mind-set that all four of the Alien films simply had to have Weaver in the lead role, and by the time Alien Resurrection came along in 1997, this choice was really starting to get stale. Despite it being early days, I’m really excited nonetheless for the long awaited return of one of the most famous movie monsters of all time.