Sony Pictures is officially planning to re-enter the Spider-Man spin-off game with a new reboot. Alongside its MCU Spider-Man franchise and beloved animated Spider-Verse saga, Sony Pictures took a stab at creating its own live-action Marvel universe across six spin-off movies. Running from 2018 to 2024, the franchise included a Venom trilogy, Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter, exploring four Spider-Man villains without featuring the web-slinger himself. Due to a string of financial flops and critical disasters, Sony called it quits with its Spider-Man spin-off universe in 2024, going out on a Kraven-sized whimper.
Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman recently spoke with The Town's Matt Belloni and was asked whether the studio will ever revisit its larger Spider-Man-adjacent franchise in a "fresh reboot [with] new people." Rotham confirmed that, "Yes," that is the plan for Sony, but offered no further details for now.
The exec was also asked about the MCU's recent struggles, and, diagnosing the cause, Rothman stated that "scarcity has value, you've got to make the audience miss you." Those comments may indicate that Sony won't spread itself quite as thin with the next attempt at a connected Spider-Man universe.
Next up for Sony's Marvel franchises are all eight episodes of Spider-Noir, coming to Amazon Prime Video on May 27, Spider-Man: Brand New Day swinging into theaters on July 31, and Beyond the Spider-Verse finally landing on June 18, 2027.
The studio is also said to be working on multiple animated Spider-Verse spin-offs, including solo flicks for Spider-Gwen and Spider-Punk. Recent reports also pulled back the curtain on an animated Venom movie, although there's no telling whether it will connect to Tom Hardy's live-action franchise for the time being.
How Sony Can Fix Its Spider-Man Spin-Off Universe Plan
After six years and as many movies of trying to launch a connected universe built around Spider-Man's rogues' gallery, reinvented as anti-heroes, Sony clearly realized it wasn't working, both critically and financially. That realisation saw projects such as El Muerto, Hypno-Hustler, and Jackpot left behind.
Many have speculated that Sony was eyeing Sinister Six team-up with Tom Hardy's Venom, Dakota Johnson's Madame Web, Jared Leto's Morbius, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven. Morbius also hinted at Vulture's involvement as Michael Keaton's Spider-Man: Homecoming villain was dragged across the Multiverse.
The studio still had a ways to go to bring those characters and storylines together, as Morbius and Vulture were the only two who ever met. After Venom: The Last Dance teased Andy Serkis' symbiote king Knull plan to plunge Earth into darkness, it's easy to see him having been the franchise's Thanos-level crossover foe.
Unfortunately for those who were eagerly anticipating that event (if there was anybody), Sony seems to be rebooting its franchise plans altogether with new creatives and likely actors too. If the studio learnt its lessons, this reboot should abandon its villain focus and instead explore its endless Spider-Man Variants.
The studio's current plans for Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Punk, and Spider-Noir prove there is no need to resort to using the wall-crawler's villains for protagonists, as the web-slinger's many Variants can offer infinite variety. One exception to that rule may be Venom, due to his solo trilogy's moderate success.
