What if Marvel Entertainment was acquired by Sony?

In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired for US$4 billion; it has been a limited liability company (LLC) since then. For financial reporting purposes, Marvel is primarily reported as part of Disney's Consumer Products segment ever since Marvel Studios' reorganization into.

However, what if another company acquired Marvel instead of Disney? In this AU, Sony of America, who already had a deal with Marvel to produce film and television content based on Spider-Man, acquired the company in 2009, being a subsidiary of it since then.

This theory is interconnected to What if Comcast acquired The Walt Disney Company back in 2004?.

List of changes

 * Marvel Entertainment would be a subsidiary of Sony of America, later transferring it to the newly-created division in 2012.
 * On the other hand, Marvel Studios, Marvel Television and Marvel Animation would be integrated into Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Music into.
 * All films in the MCU would be distributed by Columbia Pictures starting with Iron Man 2, while its television series would be produced by Sony Pictures Television.
 * Sony would acquire the film and television rights for X-Men and Fantastic Four from 20th Century Fox, with all films starting with X-Men: First Class being integrated into the MCU.
 * Same would happen with Hulk after aquiring its film rights for solo films from Universal Studios.
 * Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man film series would be integrated into the MCU, with Andrew Garfield being Peter Parker/Spider-Man in this universe.
 * This would also allow Peter to not be dependent of Iron Man, although he still considers him a major influence to him and he would provide TBD.
 * This also directly affects Civil War since Peter would stand with Captain America instead due to believing his secret identity should be kept as a secret due to Gwen dying when he let her know and signing the Registraction Act would contradict Uncle Ben's advice: with great power comes great responsibility.
 * Fantastic Four and Dark Phoenix would be rewritten in order to have a better storyline and avoid their negative reception.
 * Johnny Storm/Human Torch would be recasted, especially since Michael B. Jordan went to play Erik Killmonger on Black Panther.
 * The Thor films would be heavily altered.
 * Scarlet Witch is first introduced in X-Men: Days of Future Past in order to TBD.
 * Nebula's design would be altered to look more similar to the original comics while still keep Karen for the role.
 * Gamora would have died in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
 * Ragnorok ' s plot will now exclusively deal with Ragnorok since Planet Hulk is turned into a Hulk film.
 * Black Widow wouldn't exist since that movie was exclusively created as a filler.
 * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter don't exist and the Netflix (now Crackle) MCU shows would be more connected to the MCU.
 * Considering Crackle isn't available worldwide, its shows would air in most territories on Sony's linear channels where available such as Sony Channel and AXN.
 * Although the Avengers quadrilogy would often be regarded as the highest point of the series, the MCU's flagship subseries would be The Amazing Spider-Man due to the Spider-Man's status as the company's most emblematic character.
 * Black Tom Cassidy is promoted to the main antagonist of Deadpool 2.
 * Kit Harrington's Black Knight would instead appear in Excalibur.
 * Olivia Munn would still play Psylocke but she'll appear in Excalibur instead of X-Men: Apocalypse.
 * The films would be split into the following genres:
 * The Amazing Spider-Man: political thriller.
 * Venom: dark comedy.
 * Morbius: supernatural horror.
 * The Avengers: full-fledged action movies.
 * Captain America: TBD.
 * Iron Man: TBD.
 * Hulk: TBD.
 * Thor: stoner comedy.
 * Captain Marvel: sci-fi war film.
 * Ant-Man: action comedy.
 * Doctor Strange: PG-13 horror.
 * Black Panther: African American action film.
 * X-Men: TBD.
 * Deadpool: absurd humor.
 * Excalibur: British action.
 * Fantastic Four: TBD.
 * Guardians of the Galaxy: 1980s-like action-sci-fi-comedy.
 * Moon Knight: psychological thriller.
 * These are all new characters and major recastings and the films and TV they appear in:
 * Edward Norton would be kept as Bruce Banner for the entirety of the MCU.
 * Margot Robbie and Taron Egerton play Invisible Woman and the Human Torch in this continuity.
 * Adam Driver will play Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Doom and Doom.
 * Evan Peters would be kept as Quicksilver to bring a better connection to X-Men and to TBD.
 * Ben Affleck will portray Moon Knight in the titular movie.
 * Matt Smith will portray Captain Britain in Excalibur.
 * TBD will portray Meggan in Excalibur.
 * [British comedian] will portray Warlock in Excalibur.
 * Vinnie Jones would return as the Juggernaut in Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Endgame.
 * Damion Poitier would be kept as Thanos in order to allow Josh Brolin to keep his role as Cable without causing a time paradox.
 * John Krasiniski plays Kraven the Hunter in The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Black Panther and The Amazing Spider-Man 5.
 * Emily Blunt portrays Amora the Enchantress in Thor: Ragnorok.
 * Seth Rogen portrays MODOK in Thor: The Dark World and as a secret role in WandaVision.
 * Will Smith plays Tombstone in The Amazing Spider-Man 4.
 * [Rainn Wilson's Doc Ock]
 * Ben Mendehlson, despite still playing a Skrull in Captain Marvel, plays Kl'rt the Super Skrull instead of Talos.
 * Jason Isaacs portrays Annihilus in Fantastic Four and Doom.
 * Christoph Waltz portrays Mr. Sinister in Dark Phoenix.
 * TBD portrays Arcade in Excalibur.
 * In this universe, Kathryn Hahn's character in WandaVision is the Scientist Supreme, although it was kept as a secret by Sony when they first announced the series.
 * David Cross' cameo as  in Infinity War is replaced by one of Adam Sandler as, considering his career has been strongly associated with Sony and is confirmed to set the film in the MCU for jokes.
 * Similar to the MODOK and Scientist Supreme reveal, Zohan Dvir appears in an episode of WandaVision.
 * Since it was based on a Marvel comic book series, Big Hero 6 would be produced by Sony Pictures Animation and Marvel Animation instead of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
 * Video games based on Marvel properties would be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, making them exclusive to the PlayStation platforms.
 * The only exception are Lego games, being licensed to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, making them available to PC and Mac, as well as the Xbox and Nintendo platforms.
 * Rides based on Marvel properties would still be licensed to NBCUniversal for its theme parks.
 * The Spectacular Spider-Man and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes would get two additional seasons.
 * Due to Chadwick Boseman's passing on August 28th, 2020, Black Panther 2 got shelved in favor of avoiding a recast. [canon explanation of why Black Panther no longer appears]
 * Due to Chadwick Boseman's passing on August 28th, 2020, Black Panther 2 got shelved in favor of avoiding a recast. [canon explanation of why Black Panther no longer appears]

Phase One

 * Iron Man 2 (2010)
 * /Thor/ (2011)
 * X-Men: First Class (2011)
 * Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
 * Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
 * The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Phase Two

 * /Iron Man 3/ (2013)
 * /Planet Hulk/ (2013)
 * /Thor: The Dark World/ (2013)
 * Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
 * The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
 * /X-Men: Days of Future Past/ (2014)
 * /Guardians of the Galaxy/ (2014)
 * /Avengers: Age of Ultron/ (2015)
 * Ant-Man (2015)
 * /Fantastic Four/ (2015)

Phase Three

 * Deadpool (2016)
 * /Captain America: Civil War/ (2016)
 * /Doctor Strange/ (2016)
 * /X-Men: Apocalypse/ (2016)
 * /Fantastic Four: Doom/ (2017)
 * /Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2/ (2017)
 * /The Amazing Spider-Man 3/ (2017)
 * /Thor: Ragnarok/ (2017)
 * /Black Panther/ (2017)
 * /Avengers: Infinity War/ (2018)
 * Deadpool 2 (2018)
 * Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
 * /Venom/ (2018)
 * Captain Marvel (2019)
 * /Avengers: Endgame/ (2019)
 * /Dark Phoenix/ (2019)
 * /The Amazing Spider-Man 4/ (2019)

Phase Four

 * /Moon Knight/ (2020)
 * /Excalibur/ (2020)
 * /Fantastic Four: Namor/ (2021)
 * Morbius (2021)
 * /Venom: There Will Be Carnage/ (2021)
 * /The Amazing Spider-Man 5/ (2021)
 * /Hulk: Mad Banner/ (2021)
 * /Thor: Love and Thunder/ (2022)
 * Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
 * Captain Marvel 2 (2022)

Animated

 * Big Hero 6 (2014)
 * Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Live-action

 * /Daredevil/ (Crackle, 2015-2018)
 * /Jessica Jones/ (Crackle, 2015-2019)
 * /Luke Cage/ (Crackle, 2016-2018)
 * Iron Fist (Crackle, 2017-2018)
 * Legion (FX, 2017-2019)
 * The Defenders (Crackle, 2017)
 * Inhumans (ABC, 2017)
 * The Punisher (Crackle, 2017-2019)
 * Runaways (Crackle, 2017-2019)
 * Cloak and Dagger (MTV, 2018-2019)
 * /The Falcon and the Winter Soldier/ (Crackle, 2020)
 * /WandaVision/ (Crackle, 2020)
 * /Doom/ (Crackle, 2021)
 * /The New Mutants/ (Crackle, 2021)
 * Hawkeye (Crackle, 2022)
 * Ms. Marvel (Crackle, 2022)
 * She-Hulk (Crackle, 2022)

Animated

 * /The Spectacular Spider-Man/ (The CW/Nickelodeon, 2008-2011)
 * /The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes/ (Nickelodeon, 2010-2015)
 * Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers (TV Tokyo (Japan)/Nickelodeon (United States), 2014-2015)
 * /Avengers Forever/ (Nickelodeon, 2017-present)
 * Big Hero 6: The Series (Nickelodeon, 2017-present)
 * Marvel Future Avengers (Animax (Japan)/Nickelodeon (United States), 2017-2018)
 * Marvel Super Hero Adventures (YTV (Canada)/Nickelodeon (United States), 2017-present)
 * /Young Avengers/ (Nickelodeon, 2018-present)
 * /What If...?/ (Crackle, 2021)

Trivia

 * If anyone wants to use the MCU from this AU, it's Earth-911111111.
 * This theory is both an experimental project and also to show our discontempt with how The Walt Disney Company has handled Marvel due to the Marvel Cinematic Universe often doing the same movies with the same repetitive formula, pointless jokes that have nothing to do with the plot and being restricted from making darker films since it is owned by Disney, a thing that didn't happen when they were made by other studios such as Sony/Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal or even with DC Comics since Warner Bros. has always been more than just Looney Tunes, while Disney still has its image too much attached to family friendliness (which includes, obviously, Mickey Mouse).
 * Although Sony is also infamous for dubious actions such as some Adam Sandler movies, the controversial Ghostbusters, Charlie's Angels and Fantasy Island reboots, the Funimation controversies, the overuse of Awkawfina, the controversy regarding The Last of Us: Part 2 and the movie we won't say, we thought that they did a better job with variety and dark material when handling the Spider-Man series.