Following the news that Tom Holland's Spiderman will leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and return to Sony, fans swung onto Twitter to demand that Spider-Man be saved from fading from the Marvel movie franchise with the hashtags #SaveSpiderMan and #SaveSpidey
The studio was reportedly in discussions over a new Spider-Man agreement, with Disney wanting a 50/50 co-financing arrangement. But Sony reportedly wanted to do a deal whereby Disney got 5% of first-dollar gross, with Disney maintaining merchandising rights, which Disney rejected, according to Cosmicbook.
Some fans have concocted a theory that Sony deliberately walked away from the deal so as to be able to include Tom Holland in Sony's Venom franchise. Venom is an infamous Spider-Man villain who was not included in the MCU as Sony retained the rights to the character.
Even Avengers star Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye, gave his opinion on Instagram saying that Spider-Man should stay with Marvel.
Other fans began to notice a pattern of Spiderman franchise being cancelled.
The late Stan Lee was even invoked to support Spidey.
Some users directed their anger towards the company.
Sony released a statement through THR, which appeared to suggest that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was at fault for the fall-out. The statement also suggested that Feige's hand in Spider-Man's swinging success was exaggerated, despite Feige initiating the original handover deal between the two companies.