If there’s an upside to the Sony Picture hacking crisis, it’s that we now have a better idea of what the studio is doing with the Spider-Man movie franchise. For example, we can now confirm that a number of projects based on the superhero brand are somewhere in the pipeline; including, an animated feature and a spinoff featuring a female superhero team. It remains to be seen, though, is if Sony actually moves forward with any of these superhero-based films.

… Or, instead, Sony could make a deal with Marvel Studios, where the latter would take over the responsibility of making the Spider-Man films (with Sony getting a cut of the profit in return). According to a new report, however, if that were to happen then Marvel Studios would make a clean-break from everything that has come before in the web-slinger’s live-action appearances – including, the actor who plays the superhero.

Leaked Sony emails and internal communication has revealed that Marvel Studios and Sony discussed the possibility of Spider-Man being included in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War. Latino Review is reporting that the Civil War script – written by Captain America movie scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely – has been “nailed down”; and, as of right now, does not include Spidey, nor does it leave open a place for him.

That doesn’t mean there’s absolutely no chance of the character being incorporated at a later time, should a deal with Sony be struck; but even were that to happen, Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker wouldn’t be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. LR‘s article states that Marvel Studios doesn’t want the “baggage” that comes with Garfield and his time starring in the Amazing Spider-Man films; nor, for that matter, would there be any connection to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy that starred Toby Maguire as Mr. Parker.

Marvel Studios would also skip on recounting the Spider-Man origin story onscreen for a third time (after Spider-Man (2002) and The Amazing Spider-Man both covered that story territory), by instead jumping right into Peter Parker’s life as someone with dual identities. The new movies will thus highlight “the difficulties of being a teenager and a superhero with a romance side-story, not the film’s focus,” unlike how previous Spidey live-action films devoted much attention to the title character’s romances with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) then Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), respectively.

Garfield’s performance as Peter Parker is generally cited as being one of the stronger elements of the Amazing Spider-Man movies released to date. At the same time, it’s easy to imagine how Garfield joining the MCU would be confusing, especially for more casual comic book movie fans. The inter-connected storytelling approach of Marvel’s movie and TV universe would complicate the process of incorporating Garfield’s Peter Parker into the fold; on the other hand, it’s certainly not an impossible task.

It’s still a theoretical scenario, anyway, but after five Sony Spider-Man live-action films it would be all the more important for Marvel Studios to find a way to distinguish its Spider-Man movies from their predecessors (maybe even swapping Peter Parker for Miles Morales). It’s something worth discussing, anyway, as we wait to see just what Sony does end up doing with its superhero cash cow property…

We’ll keep you up to speed on what’s happening with the Spider-Man franchise as more information is made available.