Summary
Back in the day, Marvel Comics sold off the movie rights to its most popular characters to big studios in order to stay afloat. While most of those rights have been bought back through various mergers and buyouts, Spider-Man is still owned by Sony. Marvel and Sony have been stuck in this ongoing legal battle over the rights to theSpider-Mancharacters and stories for years and, despite the successes that come from Marvel and Sony working together on Tom Holland’sMCUSpider-Manmovies, Sony’s only recent big hit with the character has come from its animatedSpider-Versefranchise.
Every other attempt Sony has made to utilize either Peter Parker or any of his major supporting characters in the last 15 years has been underwhelming at best.Venomsaw more viewership after it left theaters and went to streaming services while its sequel flopped, andMorbiuswas the best thing that happened to meme culture since the pandemic hit (so much so that Sony thought it would be a good idea to push fora second theatrical release of the film, much to the delight of internet trolls everywhere). Despite these poorly-received projects, Sony has no plan to stop. The ever-expanding Sony Spider-Man Universe continues to grow, giving traditional villains and supporting characters of the hero spaces to shine in leading roles. That being said, Sony still hasn’t cast their own Peter Parker – and, given the less-than-ideal response to the SSU so far, connecting these villains and supporting charactersto the MCU through Tom Hollandmight be the worst move Sony could make with its new universe.
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Sony’s Spider-Verse movies have been mixed
Film and TV have become the new medium for introducing a character from comics to the general public. When the MCU kicked off withIron Manin 2008, that film not only introduced the world to Marvel as a film studio, but also introduced the world to Tony Stark as the character wasn’t widely known by the public as a comic heavy-hitter. Sony has committed to creating a cinematic universe around the villains and supporting characters of Spider-Man and the list of upcoming projects keeps growing, despite the fact that the first three live-action installments of this universe haven’t been the most well received.
Venomwas a surprisingly strong start for the studio. While it didn’t perform at MCU levels at the box office, it wasn’t a flop. It had mixed reviews from critics initially before finding its audience after moving to streaming services. However, the same couldn’t be said for its, admittedly, forgettable sequel. Then cameMorbius– the movie the internet loved more than life itself.
Morbiuswas so bad that the only memorable things about the film were thejokes made about it all over social media.Morbiusis a dull, unoriginal, repetitive disaster with an illogical script and an uncharismatic narcissist in the lead role, whose only comedic moments seemed to be there by accident. The film was an obvious studio cash-grab that fans of the Spider-Man extended world (and fans of movies in general) couldn’t take seriously after seeing the finished product. Sony was so confident about pulling an Iron Man with Michael Morbius after the modest failure of bothVenommovies that they mistook rampant online heckling for genuine praise and broughtMorbiusto theaters for a second run,only for it to flop again.
Sony wins when it works with Marvel Studios
Sony has missed the mark with live-action so far. Their attempt at building this live-action cinematic universe surrounding Spider-Man’s villains hasn’t found its footing quite yet. However, Sony has knocked it out of the park in one regard: partnering with Marvel to create Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man trilogy.
Tom Holland’s performancerevolutionized the character of Spider-Manfor a new generation. Three different actors have played Spider-Man in live-action in the last 20 years. While each take on the character brings its own unique highs and lows, Holland’s Peter Parker offers the perfect balance between the superhero and high school student sides to the character. Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy was introduced into an existing powerful fan base, allowing Sony and Marvel to forego the traditional Spidey origin story and create a version of Peter Parker that feels unique to the universe he operates in.
While prior iterations of the hero show him as a flawed hero who suffers tremendous loss, Holland’s portrayal shows a kid who was given tremendous gifts and wants to do good as a result, before showing this Peter suffering those same losses. The MCU Spider-Man trilogy is fun, youthful, and deeply grounded. It exemplifies the themes set forth in the previous trilogies while developing its own identity. When these factors are considered, it’s obvious that the element that Sony is missing to make a good SSU film is Marvel itself.
Sony needs to keep Tom Holland’s Spidey away from Morbius, Venom, and Kraven
With the way Sony’s SSU is moving, the titular hero is bound to make an appearance sometime soon. After three underwhelming projects added to their roster so far, the SSU is steadily moving forward with their next feature:Kraven the Hunter. Whilefirst looks atKravenare promising, the film still has the potential to go the way ofMorbius. However, any of the announced future SSU projects have the potential to introduce Spider-Man to the SSU –and it would do Sony a disservice to yank Tom Holland over to do it.
ShouldKravenbe a hit and shine a new light on the SSU, Sony has the potential to rival recent MCU projects with this new cinematic universe. Though boththe SSU and MCU have been shown to be connectedin multiple projects, finding a Spidey that Sony can keep to themselves is integral to separating this new universe in the public eye. Leave Tom Holland to the MCU – he’ll be fine over there.
