What does Sony have planned for their Spider-Man film universe after the release of Venom? The answers may surprise you, because they sure surprised us.
There had been plans for a Silver and Black film, featuring Marvel Comics characters Silver Sable and Black Cat and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. That project has now been shelved, but in its place rises two new films.
Sony will now make a solo Black Cat movie — which will retain Prince-Bythewood as a producer but most likely not as the director — and a solo Silver Sable film.
Variety had the scoop on that news and even more happenings in what Sony internally calls Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, SUMC for short. We’re not sold on that name.
Plans for a Morbius movie, directed by Daniel Espinosa and starring Jared Leto, as well as a Kraven the Hunter movie, written by Richard Wenk, are still on the table. In addition, Sony is looking for writers to tackle Silk (which we’d already had word of) but also Jackpot and Nightwatch, who are pretty obscure characters in Spider-Man lore.
“Spider-Man connects to a lot of the characters”, Sanford Panitch, president of Columbia Pictures (and the person in charge of the SUMC) told Variety. “There are villains, heroes and antiheroes and a lot are female characters, many of whom are bona fide, fully dimensionalised and utterly unique”.
This, however, all begins with Venom in October. The hope is for all these characters to share a universe, a universe that will, eventually, tie into Spider-Man himself, played by Tom Holland.
That’s the reason why it’s believed Venom will end up being PG-13, so that its main character and others, can cross over in future movies. That crossover could potentially also involve Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe — which is likely to soon include the X-Men as a result of the Fox deal — if the Sony/Disney relationship holds.
Oh and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse? Not a part of the SUMC.