Pepper Potts is Back but Opens Up the Demise of the Marvel/Sony Relationship?
Which brings us to the uneasy alliance of Marvel and Sony. Creatively, I’ve not heard a peep, and given the strength of the character and story elements we’re seeing, I’m not worried about Homecoming being a mess. But on the production side, there have been some hiccups. Marvel has a reputation for being cheap because they don’t pay actors private island money—not even RDJ, who takes on ill-advised franchise reboots to make that kind of cash—but never mistake that for cheapness across the board. Where it matters, Marvel SPENDS. They are willing to pay to make their sh*t look good, and they make the kind of bank that allows for some spendiness when it comes to marketing.
Speaking of spending, remember last year, and Gwyneth Paltrow’s will-she-or-won’t-she role in Captain America: Civil War? At the time, I was the one who said she wasn’t in it, which was undoubtedly for reasons due to story bloat, but also at least in part because her Marvel contract is up and they’d have to pay through the nose to get her back, even for a cameo. Well, Marvel isn’t the footing the bill for Homecoming, so guess who’s back? That’s right, Pepperony lives as Pepper Potts returns to the MCU, and don’t think Sony hasn’t noticed they’re the ones on the hook for Goop’s day rate.
And that has been a problem for Sony, who has been a bit snippy about the cash flow on Homecoming. There’s been some sticker-shock about the price tag on a Marvel movie—remember that Tom Rothman, who hates superheroes and has previously short-changed the X-Men movies at Fox, is in charge at Sony—and with Sony announcing plans for a Spider-Man universe separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I do wonder if this marriage might already be over.
