Sony Pictures makes a very specific kind of superhero movie, and that has not translated well into a post-MCU era. Marvel’s own cinematic universe made all others feel superfluous — and while there’s definitely a market for a superhero franchise that doesn’t take itself too seriously, the movies within must actually be worth watching. Sony has struggled with the latter half of that brief for the past decade: the third reboot of its Spider-Man universe started strong with Venom in 2018, but the films that followed have each found new ways to redefine the word “flop.” Sony remained dogged in its quest to revive the Spider-Verse, going so far as to release a whopping three films in 2024. But if Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom: The Last Dance proved anything, it’s that the Spider-Verse has been defunct for some time.
Insiders claimed that Sony shelved all the spinoffs it had planned after Madame Web’s box office failure, leading most to assume that the Spider-Verse was officially finished (at least on the live-action front). As the studio has been relatively quiet since, it wasn’t much of a leap — but the powers that be might have just directed their energy to yet another widescale reboot.
