A month ago a large majority of us lost our mind when Sony announced that Spider-Man would be leaving the MCU. It was the type of betrayal that was on par with Zack Morris dating Lisa Turtle. Not only was that a shitty thing to do to Screech but what about your audience? Presenting us with a relationship that would so obviously work so late in the game was borderline cruel. Shame on you Saved By the Bell. Shame.

As a side project,  can anyone tell me why Lisa and Zack broke up? I honestly can’t remember and am too lazy to Google it.

With Sony essentially believing that they could do Spider-Man just as good on their own a large amount of Marvel fans were sent into these dark Spider-Man induced holes. Visions of emo Peter Parker literally danced through their heads. Dreams were haunted by scenes of  Peter’s”wicked cool” skateboarding tricks to the tunes of Coldplay. Venom… either the Spider-Man 3 or film version rooted deep in their souls as a constant reminder of why Sony would think this is okay. Thousands of Spider-Man fans relished in the irony that they too didn’t feel so good.

All seemed lost for Spidey fans at a time where all should have been won. After Far From Home it seemed that Spider-Man was primed to be one of the big three of the MCU going forward. This very site believed that he would become one of the next Avengers. As a collective unit, we had fought so hard to get Spider-Man back and in the blink of an eye he was gone again. Just like that. It was like reliving the final scene of Infity War again but this time with more permanent effects.

Or is it?

Over the last couple of days, rumors have started to surface of the possibility of Sony being purchased by Apple. As you know, Apple is joining the streaming game, much like everyone else, but unlike Netflix or Disney+ they don’t come with a back catalog which is sort of problematic. That would mean the Apple streaming service would only start with a handful of shows and consumers would have to ask themselves if that was worth the money. Sure, the show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Weatherspoon looks good but is it enough to make you subscribe to yet another streaming service that doesn’t have anything else to offer? No, probably not. But if Apple was to buy Sony then suddenly they would be able to fill their streaming service with a back catalog. It would most certainly give people an incentive to subscribing at least.

Why does this matter? Outside of the fact that we’re coming closer to a world where we have limited options where we get our content, this purchase would have a massive effect on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If Sony was to be purchased the rights to Spider-Man would automatically revert back to Marvel. Just like that. Poof. We’d have Spider-Man back. Kevin Feige wouldn’t have to spend any money or give anything up. It would just be a quiet win.

Here’s the thing, while these rumors are surfacing, I’m not entirely sure how factual they are. Apple would have to spend a ton of money to get Sony and these rumors are more like whispers. They could possibly be Marvel fans trying to will this into existence. Which would be great but I wouldn’t get overly excited about this just yet. Sure, it’s something to keep an eye on but don’t sit there holding your breath. You’ll probably pass out or pop a blood vessel or something. I don’t want that on my conscience.

As we saw with Disney’s purchasing of Fox, these things take time. It’s not like this happens overnight. There’s an approval process that needs to be adhered to and that takes time. We knew about the Disney/Fox deal for a while but it just became official this year. Meaning, Spider-Man probably wouldn’t go back to Marvel until things were official. I would be willing to bet money that Sony would still try and sneak in a new Tom Holland Spider-Man movie before the purchase went through. Because why not, right? I know if I was Sony, I would.

Don’t get me wrong, I want Spider-Man back in the MCU. That’s where he belongs but I understand that negotiations had fallen through. Both Marvel and Sony had stopped communicating and this seems to be the world that we live in now. A world where we have the MCU and a Spider-Man Universe. Hopefully one day they’ll be combined and maybe that comes from Apple spending the big bucks… but as of right now we still live in a spiderless MCU making these rumors almost cruel. I want to get my hopes up but I should know better. I don’t want to lose the kid… again.

What do you think Geeklings? Do you think there is any truth to the rumors that Apple is possibly buying Sony? Has Kevin Feige been playing this card the whole time? Or do you think Sony will seemingly keep Spider-Man forever? Sound off in the comments or throw me a line over on Twitter @iamgeek32.