Although Sony’s animated Spider-Verse movies have proven themselves as critical and commercial darlings, its live-action universe centered around Spider-Man villains and supporting characters has been more of a rocky creative endeavor. Reception towards these movies has ranged from mixed to dismally negative, and only the Venom movies have been box office hits. It’d gotten to the point where ahead of Kraven the Hunter’s release, it was reported that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe would be ending, at least for a while. However, if a new rumor claiming what Sony’s Marvel movies will be about next, then I will absolutely welcome this transition.
What was ironic about Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is that the Venom trilogy, Morbius, Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter never actually featured the web-slinger hero that all these characters are tied to in the comics. Well, the studio may finally be learning from this… sort of. According to scooper MyTimeToShineHello, Sony is looking to make movies about Spider-Man variants going forward.
So in the same vein as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and the upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, Sony would be expanding its sights past just the standard Peter Parker and focus on other versions of the character or even other Spider-heroes who live elsewhere in the Marvel multiverse. From Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Punk to the Spider-Gwen version of Spider-Woman and Spider-UK, the sky’s the limit on the characters who could get the cinematic spotlight with this approach. As someone who’s been lukewarm on how Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has been handled, I sincerely hope that this information is accurate, as it’s the best of both worlds.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had straightforward Spider-Man movies covered since 2017 with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, who will return for 2026’s Spider-Man 4. By using these other heroes, Sony can finally craft a separate, self-contained franchise that revolves around Spider-Man that doesn’t need to overlap with what the MCU is doing. Bringing greater exposure to these alternate versions of Spider-Man would be a great move, especially considering that general audiences already have a passing familiarity with many of them from the Spider-Verse movies.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that Sony is already trying out this variant approach on the small screen. A Spider-Noir TV series is on the way to those with an Amazon Prime Video subscription, and it stars Nicolas Cage as an older Spider-Man who’s working as a private investigator in 1930s New York. Again, assuming this latest rumor is legit, perhaps Sony will wait to see how that show performs before deciding whether to move forward with this alleged plan.
In any case, at least Spidey fans can take comfort for now knowing that Spider-Man 4 will come out on July 24, 2026 and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will arrive at a yet-to-be-announced date. Spider-Noir began filming last August and is expected to conclude in February, so there may be a chance it’s ready in time to air on the 2025 TV schedule.
