Amazing Spider-Man Cinematic Universe Expands With Venom, Sinister Six Movies

When Marvel came up with its cinematic universe, a smart plan to tie its super hero films together in ways that would organically increase interest in future releases, it was only a matter of time before other studios copied that approach. DC/Warner Bros. is showing signs of doing something similar with its upcoming Batman/Superman flick, and now Sony is jumping into the fray by announcing that ” The Amazing Spider-Man 3″ (yes, that’s already well on its way to being a thing) will be followed by “Venom” and “Sinister Six” movies.

That’s bad news for anyone hoping to see the Spider-Man movie rights would ever revert to Marvel, allowing the web-slinger to appear alongside the Avengers. Sony knows it can continue making money with Spidey and his associated characters, and instead of burning through his adventures and having to reboot again, the spin-offs can keep the gravy train humming along.

Fortunately, the studio also is going about it in a coordinated fashion. Comic Book Resources reported that a brain trust of sorts has been created with director Marc Webb, producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Ed Solomon, and Drew Goddard. All of those gentlemen will be involved with the “Venom” and “Sinister Six” films in various capacities, hopefully keeping everything consistent and forming the kinds of links that we’ve seen Marvel construct.

One can only hope they’ll do Venom more justice than he received the first time he hit the big screen in “Spider-Man 3.” An amazing visual character and an interesting concept just got shoveled into the worst entry of Sony’s first Spidey trilogy, bumming out legions of comics fans in the process.

The Sinister Six doesn’t have nearly the same cachet with the general public, but Sony has two advantages with the group film: it’s never had a stable membership in the comics, so it can use any combination of villains it wants, and moviegoers will already know some or all of them from “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its sequels.

Movies “starring” villains could be tricky, and the scripts will have to be extra tight to make them work. Still, it’s great to see Sony putting this much thought into the franchise. As following the leader goes, copying Marvel’s shared universe plan was a smart move.

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