Sony Pictures Reverses Course On Spider-Man Universe Plans

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Sony Pictures is starting fresh with another Spider-Man spin-off series. While they continue the popular Spider-Man movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the acclaimed Spider-Verse animated films, Sony previously tried building its own universe of live-action Marvel characters. Between 2018 and 2024, they released six films focusing on Spider-Man villains – including three Venom movies, Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter – but without Spider-Man himself appearing. Unfortunately, these films didn’t perform well financially or with critics, and Sony ended the series in 2024 with the release of Kraven the Hunter.

Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman recently told Matt Belloni of The Town that the studio intends to reboot its Spider-Man-related franchises with a new cast and creative team. While he confirmed a reboot is planned, Rothman didn’t share any specifics about the project at this time.

The executive also addressed the recent challenges facing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, explaining that creating a sense of anticipation is key – “scarcity has value, you’ve got to make the audience miss you.” This suggests Sony might be more selective with its upcoming Spider-Man universe projects, avoiding over saturation.

Sony’s Marvel fans have a lot to look forward to! All eight episodes of Spider-Noir will be available on Amazon Prime Video starting May 27th. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is hitting theaters on July 31st, and Beyond the Spider-Verse is scheduled for release on June 18, 2027.

In addition to its main projects, the studio is reportedly developing several animated spin-offs based on the Spider-Verse, including individual movies starring Spider-Gwen and Spider-Punk. Recent news also suggests an animated Venom movie is in the works, though it’s currently unclear if it will be connected to the live-action Venom films starring Tom Hardy.

How Sony Can Fix Its Spider-Man Spin-Off Universe Plan

Sony spent six years and made six movies attempting to create a shared universe featuring Spider-Man villains reimagined as anti-heroes. However, it became clear the idea wasn’t succeeding with either critics or audiences. As a result, projects like El Muerto, Hypno-Hustler, and Jackpot were cancelled.

There’s been a lot of talk about Sony wanting to create a team-up movie featuring characters like Venom (played by Tom Hardy), Madame Web (Dakota Johnson), Morbius (Jared Leto), and Kraven the Hunter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The movie Morbius even suggested the involvement of Vulture, the villain played by Michael Keaton in Spider-Man: Homecoming, hinting that he’d been brought in from another universe.

The studio had a lot of work ahead to fully connect the characters and stories, since only Morbius and Vulture had actually interacted. With Venom: The Last Dance hinting at Andy Serkis’ plans for the symbiote king Knull to bring darkness to Earth, he seemed poised to become the major, overarching villain for the entire series – similar to Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It looks like Sony is starting fresh with its Spider-Man Universe, potentially with new creative teams and actors. Hopefully, they’ve realized focusing on villains wasn’t the right approach and will instead explore the many different versions of Spider-Man that the franchise offers.

The studio’s approach with characters like Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen shows they don’t need to focus on Spider-Man’s enemies to create compelling stories. The diverse range of Spider-Man variants provides endless possibilities. However, Venom might be an exception, as his recent solo movies did reasonably well.

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2026-03-02 19:04