The Spider-Man spinoff movies are... confusing. So far as we can tell, Tom Hardy's Venom film and the team up of Silver Sable and Black Cat won't involve everyone's favorite webslinger -- yet. But according to a new rumor, these movies might be seeding Sony's universe with multiple villains like The Scorpion, The Chameleon and even Norman Osborn, so maybe they'll be in place for a later movie that brings Spider-Man over.
Treat this as a rumor for now, as the puzzle pieces on these solo Sony Spider-centric movies are still moving into place. But after hiring Beyond the Lights director Gina Prince-Bythewood, it's being reported by Splash Report that a bevy of recognizable Spider-Man villains would show up in this movie. The plot finds Silver Sable hired by the government to track down Black Cat in Central and South America. Sable is working a larger case against Mendel Stromm, aka Robot Master. It seems Stromm and two henchmen (The Scorpion and The Tarantula), killed Silver Sable's father. Felicia Hardy, on the other hand, struck a deal with Stromm to free her own father from a Russian prison. However, Stromm is seeking to capture Black Cat, because his "financier" -- alleged to be Norman Osborn -- wants her for a far more nefarious plan.
Yes, this sounds like someone did a Spider-Man Mad Libs and turned it into a screenplay suggestion. But if any of this ends up being true, then the planned Silver Sable and Black Cat combo movie could, in one fell swoop, establish the presence of numerous Spider-Man villains in a Sony cinematic universe that they'd only have to bring Tom Holland back over to in order to start flushing it out. Right now, Holland is on loan to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for a movie that Sony's still in charge of, Spider-Man: Homecoming. The hero also will appear in Avengers: Infinity War, and an unnamed Spider-Man sequel, hitting theaters on July 5, 2019.
Outside of Norman Osborn (pictured), these are lower-level Spider-Man villains. However, with Michael Keaton set to play The Vulture, I could see thugs like The Scorpion and The Chameleon teaming up for future Spidey movies. Osborn, of course, tips the hand to the presence of The Green Goblin -- Spidey's chief nemesis -- so if Osborn somehow gets involved in the creation of Venom, you can start to see the threads of these stories bonding together.
This could also be a rumor. That's how we'll treat is, for now. But I really like the idea of the Venom film and the Sable/Cat combo doing the legwork and establishing a larger foundation for the Spider-Man universe. Now they just need to work Spider-Man in.
