It’s not quite “every ‘Spider-Man’ movie on Disney+,” but it’s a start.
Beginning Friday, the entire Sam Raimi-directed “Spider-Man” trilogy (“Spider-Man,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man 3”) will arrive alongside Marc Webb’s first “Amazing Spider-Man” reboot attempt. On May 12, subscribers will be able to watch Sony’s first “Venom” flick and the first Marvel/Sony Peter Parker passion play, “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
However, that still leaves four of 10 live-action titles at least going back to 2002 MIA on the platform. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” are left out alongside the two MCU Spidey sequels, “Spider-Man: Far from Home” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” This is just how the licensing agreements and related streaming merry-go-round work. All four of those “missing” titles are currently streaming on Starz.
For that matter, every single “Spider-Man” or “Venom” movie is currently available to rent for around $4 on every mainstream VOD platform.
While the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst/James Franco iteration will at least arrive on Disney+ as a complete, stand-alone entity, we’ll see how much interest viewers have in the first chapters of the next two variations sans the next installments. Will audiences be thrilled to check out Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” on Disney+ knowing that they have to sign up for Starz or pay $4 to rent “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”?
Considering how much audiences don’t seem to pay attention to what is streaming where, will they watch “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and become angry/outraged to only then discover that the next two Tom Holland/Zendaya flicks are only available elsewhere? At least “Morbius” is currently hidden away on Netflix, safe from accidental discovery.
Considering the relative lack of buzzy new content on Disney+, save for periodic “Star Wars” and MCU shows, this qualifies as a get. To be fair, next month will pick up via a National Geographic-produced Anne Frank miniseries “A Small Light, ” a miniseries adaptation of Gene Luen Yang’s “American Born Chinese” (starring Ben Wang, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan) and “The Muppets Mayhem.”
