It's not exactly unusual for superheroes to team up. Spider-Man and the X-Men have done so on numerous occasions in the comics, so it should come as no surprise that they are doing so again - sort of - on the big screen. But surprise! There is an X-Men: Days Of Future Past clip in the credits of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which marks a possible new era of collaboration between competing studios with Fox and Sony working together.
Now this isn't a post-credits sting as we've seen before in the Marvel universe, setting up some sort of crossover between the two worlds. Rather, it's a clip from the X-film that gives us a taste of the action we're in for. We've been told by Sony that the clip *will *be attached to the film in the UK.
The scene featured sees Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique, Lucas Till's Havok and Evan Jonigkeit's Toad taking on William Stryker (Josh Helman) and his military men. Without wishing to spoil anything, let's just say that Mystique once again demonstrates her formidable fighting skills in the brief segment.
Presumably there have been significant negotiations leading to this point, and the comic nerd in all of us hopes that someone said, over coffee during a break in the meeting, "Hey, how about we get these crazy kids together properly?" At the very least, this could lead to, next time, content being filmed expressly for this sort of crossover activity.
Neither is this the first attempt at co-operation between studios sharing the Marvel universe: there were early talks to have the Oscorp building appear in the New York skyline of Avengers, perhaps envisioning an exchange where Stark Tower would show up behind Spidey. However, this clip is still a step towards a unified Marvel theory universe, which would be unspeakably cool - even if it is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Variety managed to ferret out the real reason for the sting’s presence – a deal between Fox and Sony over Marc Webb’s services. Turns out that Webb still owes Fox Searchlight a film in his contract after (500) Days Of Summer and in order for him to sign on to make the second (and third) Spidey movies, Sony agreed to the free plug for Days Of Future Past.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is out in the UK today. It hits US cinemas on May 2. X-Men: Days Of Future Past arrives on May 22 here and May 23 across the Pond.