Imagine if Lord of the Rings were like Marvel. Frodo, Bilbo and the elves would be able to frolic together happily through the Shire, and take on big bad Sauron. But due to complicated legal machinations by lawyers in the late 90s, the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm and the Lonely Mountain would need to exist in their very own, entirely separate film and TV universe, while Gollum might find himself being written out altogether. Only if various suits met up to thrash out deals that allowed all of the above to appear together would they be able to do so – otherwise never the twain shall meet, and all that.
This is the problem faced, to all intents and purposes, by Sony and its Spider-Man Universe, which this week announced that the proposed movies Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web will be pushed back to October 2023 and February 2024, respectively.
