Sony has announced their branding title for their planned series of movies based on the comic book characters they own from their film rights purchase of Spider-Man from Marvel Comics – Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
Well, to be more accurate, we should perhaps say re-christened. Initially the stdio was referring to their proposed slate of films springing out of the Marvel Comics characters they own the film rights to as the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. That’s not really a great name, and the acronym it formed, SPUMC, was even worse.
Outside of the two Holland-starring Spider-Man films, which have one foot clearly planted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony has actually only released two Spider-Man related films – 2018’s Venom and the animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. That’s not to say that the studio is skimping on their plans going forward. Aside from December;s premier of No Way Home, the Venom sequel, Venom – Let There Be Carnage, is set for release in October and Morbius, with Jared Leto, will be hitting theaters next January. Beyond that, Sony has Kraven The Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson set for an early 2023 release and has a film featuring the character Madame Web in development. Writers Roberto Orci and Olivia Wilde are also developing tehir own, as yet unnamed, Spider-Verse projects.
Of course, this new branding reveals something of Sony’s future plans for the franchise. Holland’s current contract to play Peter Parker is up with Spider-Man: No Way Home. This certainly seems to tip the studio’s hand that they are looking to keep Holland around for a while longer. After all, you wouldn’t really name your franchise after a character who wasn’t going to be sticking around, right?
Let’s remember that this not the first time that Sony has tried to build a shared cinematic universe around Spider-Man and associated characters. In 2014, a portion of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starring Andrew Garfield as the friendly neighborhood wallcrawler. Those plans fell apart when critical reception that film was disappointing, though that did pave the way for Sony to team up with Marvel Studios to have Spider-Man appear in the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe.
