Whenever a Marvel movie is released, audiences sit up and pay attention. For better or for worse, they dominate the conversation as fans discuss whether or not they live up to expectations, honor their source material, and work as part of whatever shared universe of superheroes they belong to. It's a lifestyle for Marvel fans, and a justified one at that.
We can largely thank the success of Marvel Studios' own MCU for that. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has changed the industry so much in its two decades of existence, influencing how other studios approach cinematic storytelling and shared universes of their own. The art of making superhero movies is so different to what it once was. And that's particularly wild when there were Marvel movies being made at a time when the MCU didn't exist.
Though DC had a greater influence on the early days of superhero movies, Marvel has really come into its own since the inception of the MCU. That doesn't mean that all Marvel movies are successful, and it certainly doesn't mean that some of them haven't been cancelled, but it is a testament to the strength of these Marvel Comics characters. That's especially true when it comes to the MCU, but it's also important to remember that Marvel Studios isn't the only studio making movies about Marvel characters. And, well, maybe they should be.
Sony has reportedly cancelled all of its planned Spider-Man spinoff movies
According to renowned Marvel insider Daniel Richtman, Sony Pictures has cancelled all of its planned live-action Spider-Man spinoff movies. That includes a Venom spinoff focused on the all-powerful villain Knull (who made his live-action debut in Venom: The Last Dance). And that would seemingly put an end to the controversial Sony Marvel Spider-Verse franchise, for now at least.
While this has yet to be officially confirmed by anyone at Sony, it's not surprising either. The writing was on the wall for the franchise after Kraven the Hunter dramatically underperformed at the box office last year, going on to become one of the worst-performing superhero movies of all time (despite the titular character having some mainstream appeal). It was the most recent in a growing line of failures for the Sony Spider-Verse franchise, after Madame Web and Morbius - both of which failed to earn back their budgets and became social media sensations due to their overwhelmingly negative reviews.
The silver lining in all of this franchise was the centerpiece of the Sony Marvel universe, and that is the Venom movies. Hardly critical masterpieces, the first Venom was a fan-favorite among audiences, but the second two didn't live up to expectations. And even at their best, they didn't offer much outside of senseless fun. That would be great if that was the point, but these movies wanted to be more serious than they were, and audiences didn't take them all that seriously.
Through the trilogy was very successful at the box office, both the second and third movies experienced only half of the success of the first installment. And with The Last Dance bringing Venom's story to a close, that part of the story is done for now... leaving Sony with no other live-action success stories outside of them. There was the Knull arc, as the character was seemingly being set up to act as the Thanos-level big bad of the franchise, but after the response to Venom 3 and the overall lack of enthusiasm about a Spider-Man universe that can't use Spider-Man (as Sony currently shares him with Marvel Studios' MCU), that film has seemingly been scrapped... for now.
It's a shame that Sony's live-action Spider-Verse is up in the air right now because there is certainly potential with it in the future, but it's not all that surprising either given that at least three of the films within it are considered among the worst superhero movies ever made. Hopefully, the studio will find a way to work things out with the characters going forward (and perhaps even allow Marvel Studios to use them in the Spider-Man movies).
There is still a future for Sony's Spider-Verse in general, with both Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (the third installment in the Into the Spider-Verse animated movie series) and the upcoming live-action Spider-Man Noir series starring Nicholas Cage on the horizon.
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