After years of trying (and mostly failing), it looks like Sony is finally ready to abandon their efforts to turn their Spider-Man license into an entire universe of interconnected films.
That’s according to TheWrap, which claims in a new report that the Kraven the Hunter will be the last of these Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man in them “for now.”
“They’ve developed what they want to develop for now. It’s really about the next Spider-Man film,” a source told the trade.
READ MORE: The Best Spider-Man Movie Never Made
This week’s Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the longtime Marvel villain, is the sixth entry in the so-called “Sony’s Spider-Man Universe” following a trilogy of Venom movies, Morbius, and Madame Web. When Venom is the best film your cinematic universe has produced, that’s not a great sign.
The fundamental problem with these films is not hard to diagnose. The character who gives this universe its name has never and can never appear in it! Marvel and Sony’s current deal to share Spider-Man means that Tom Holland’s version of the character exists in the MCU, and thus cannot also be in this Sony Spider-Man Universe alongside Venom or Calypso or Spider-Girl. And so what you are left with is a Madame Web movie without Spider-Man, a Morbius movie without Spider-Man. Would you want to see a Godfather movie without the Corleones? How about a Iron Man movie about that robotic arm in Tony Stark’s workshop? Would that sound like a good idea?
We might not see a Mister Negative movie or a Molten Man TV series moving forward, but that doesn’t mean Sony is handing the rights to Spider-Man back to Marvel. They are already working on their fourth Spidey film starring Tom Holland (produced in conjunction with Marvel) as well as the third Spider-Verse animated movie.
Every Spider-Man and Spinoff Movie Ranked
All of Sony’s Spider-Man movies (plus their spinoffs), ranked from the worst to the best.
Gallery Credit: Matt Singer