The Sony Spider-Man universe is in a peculiar state. First of all, we have to ask ourselves what exactly is the Sony Spider-Man universe? On one end, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is connected to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (as part of their shared deal) and the solo Spider-Man movies, while solely distributed by Sony Pictures, is co-produced by Marvel Studios. However, on the other end, we have movies like 2018’s Venom starring Tom Hardy, which isn’t part of the MCU, despite the character being Spider-Man’s most iconic villain in the comics.
It’s one thing to make a villain origin story. But it’s rather weird if it doesn’t lead to an eventual clash with the superhero, isn’t it? It’s different is the villain is a more grounded mob boss-esque character. But most comic book readers would agree that the whole concept of Venom only works if there’s a clash with Spider-Man. Will we ever see that, though? We have no idea. And as it turns out, Sony Pictures Entertainment Producer doesn’t really have a concrete answer either.
In an interview with ScreenRant, she was asked if other anti-hero/villain-centric movies currently in development, like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter (both of whom are also iconic Spider-Man villains) will connect to Peter Parker and the MCU. Pascal had this to say:
“The most important thing is that each of these movies can stand on their own. So I think the first thing for us to think about is: Venom has to stand on its own, Far From Home has to stand on its own, Spider-Verse has to stand on its own. They all have to be great movies themselves. And then the possibilities are endless.”
From where I’m standing, that sounds like an answer a politician would give. Of course, movies need to be great on their own regardless if they’re part of a larger universe or not. Perhaps — and this is just pure speculation here — Marvel Studios told Amy Pascal that those characters will only be integrated into the MCU if they’re genuinely good.
Later, Pascal expressed her excitement for the upcoming Morbius movie.
“Jared is fantastic. Who could be better? You can’t imagine. It’s fantastic. I’m not involved in that one, but the studio just wrapped, and I think it looks really great.”
Finally, in regards to Kraven and the plethora of Spider-Man comics characters that are to be made into movies, Amy Pascal said:
“Well, that’s the thing about the Spidey universe. There are so many characters; we haven’t even scratched the surface of it. I’m always getting calls from Dan Slott saying, ‘But you haven’t done this one yet! You haven’t done that one yet!'”
It’s funny how she calls it the Spidey universe. Is it really a Spider-Man universe if Spider-Man doesn’t exist in it? I guess only time will tell if we’ll see the web-slinger pop up in these spin-off movies and vice versa.
