Why Some Marvel Fans Are Nervous About New Sony Pictures Boss

Fan optimism about the ‘Spider-Man’ film franchise would appear to be at an all-time high following the recent announcement that Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have reached an agreement to share the rights to the character, allowing him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, for some Marvel fans these high hopes may have taken something of a tumble with the announcement that Tom Rothman will take over from Amy Pascal as the new chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group.

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Rothman takes over in the aftermath of some very high profile troubles for Sony, following the computer hack scandal and terror threats over ‘The Interview,’ yet he seems confident in remarks to Variety: “I love a challenge and I think there’s a fabulous base in place here… This is a really good company with great potential.”

The reason Marvel fans may not be so confident about his appointment is that this is not the first time Rothman has been in charge of a studio at the reins of a beloved Marvel Comics franchise, as he was chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment during the 2000s, in the early years of the ‘X-Men’ movies - and many fans and commentators have held Rothman directly responsible for the problems the series ran into midway.

It has long been rumoured that Rothman personally dislikes superhero movies, and there have been claims that he opposed the production of ‘X-Men’ - which came out in 2000, the same year he took over at Fox. Nevertheless, given the box office success of Bryan Singer’s film, sequels were inevitable, and 2003’s ‘X2’ met with an even more favourable reception and bigger box office.

However, it was at Rothman’s behest that ‘X-Men 3: the Last Stand’ was rushed into production to meet a May 2006 release - and some have suggested this was out of determination to get it in cinemas before Warner Bros’ ‘Superman Returns,’ which Bryan Singer jumped ship to direct.

Matthew Vaughn had initially been lined up to take over from Singer on ‘The Last Stand,’ but pulled out in pre-production partly due to family matters, but also - as the director told the Telegraph in 2007 - because of the rushed schedule: “I didn’t have the time to make the movie that I wanted to make. I had a vision for how it should be, and I wanted to make sure I was making a film as good as X-Men 2, and I knew there was no way it could be.”

There were rumours that Joss Whedon was keen to take the job on, but Rothman ultimately hired Brett Ratner (with Hugh Jackman’s approval, it should be stressed), and most fans and critics agree the film was barely a shadow of what had gone before.

Above all else, ‘The Last Stand’ seemed curiously preoccupied with closing the book on the series, given it saw several key characters killed off, and several others lose their powers. This seemed an odd approach on the third film of a series with such potential for longevity.

Even so, ‘The Last Stand’ proved the biggest financial success of the series (which it remains to this day). 2009 prequel ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ - conceived as the first of several origin movies, with a Magneto film initially planned - arguably fared even worse with critics and fans, and is said to have suffered heavily from ‘micromanagement’ from Rothman. Collider cites a story that the Fox boss came onto the set and had it repainted, without in any way consulting director Gavin Hood.

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Rothman was ultimately let go by Fox in 2012 after the studio’s output under-performed for a few summers in a row. Reporting his dismissal at the time, Deadline called the outgoing chief “brilliant but arrogant,” citing various examples of his reportedly bullish nature causing tension within the company, and suggesting that their greatest successes - most notably 2009’s ‘Avatar’ - were in spite of Rothman rather than because of him (reportedly he had opposed making the film, as well as James Cameron’s earlier ‘Titanic’ - which subsequently became the two biggest box office hits in history).

So, is it reasonable for Spider-fans to be concerned that this figure who may have almost derailed the ‘X-Men’ series is now overseeing ‘Spider-Man’ as well? ‘Deadpool’ creator Rob Liefeld for one does not seem impressed by Rothman’s appointment at Sony, blaming the ex-Fox boss on Twitter for keeping ‘Deadpool’ in development hell for so long:

The big question is what this will mean for relations between Sony and Marvel. It’s little secret that Marvel and Fox are not known to be on the best terms with one another, with much of this animosity said to be rooted in Rothman’s reign. Given his history with Marvel and his uncooperative reputation, it seems entirely feasible that this could impede the new creative collaboration over Spider-Man.

Still, it is worth mentioning that Rothman was still on board at Fox when Matthew Vaughn returned for 2011’s ‘X-Men: First Class,’ which successfully revived the X-movies - so it is feasible that he may no longer be quite so difficult as his reputation would suggest.

All we can really say for sure right now is that this makes us even more curious to see how things develop regarding ‘Spider-Man’s planned appearance in Marvel’s ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ due 29 April 2016, and the new Spider-Man solo movie to be co-produced by Sony’s Amy Pascal and Marvel’s Kevin Feige, due 28 July 2017.

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Picture Credit: Sony, WENN, 20th Century Fox,Rob Liefeld/Twitter