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 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.
 * 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 first appearing on the X-Men movies and not showing up on Age of Ultron with Winter Soldier taking her role]
 * 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 Sony Crackle) MCU shows would be more connected to the MCU.
 * 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.
 * 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: TBD.
 * Ant-Man: TBD comedy.
 * Doctor Strange: PG-13 horror.
 * Black Panther: African American-led action movies.
 * X-Men: TBD.
 * Deadpool: absurd humor.
 * Excalibur: British action.
 * Fantastic Four: TBD.
 * Guardians of the Galaxy: 1980s-like action-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.
 * Ben Affleck will portray Moon Knight in the titular movie.
 * Vinnie Jones would return as the Juggernaut in Deadpool 2 and Avengers: [Infinity War or 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 Amora]
 * [Seth Rogen MODOK]
 * [Will Smith Tombstone and Rainn Wilson Doc Ock]
 * [villain replacing Vulk in Dark Phoenix, Mr. Sinister, new take on Hellfire club and probably yeet first class or TBD]
 * [the Hayn noisy neighbor in WandaVision being actually the Scientist Supreme]
 * 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.
 * 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.

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)
 * Black Panther II (2022)
 * Captain Marvel 2 (2022)

Animated

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

Live-action

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

Trivia

 * If anyone wants to use the MCU from this AU, it's Earth-91111111.
 * 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.