With Spider-Man: Brand New Day launching in just a few months on July 31, 2026, it’s an exciting time to be a Spider-Man fan. The Tom Holland-led franchise will become the first live-action iteration of Peter Parker to have four solo films, and will hopefully continue to be a part of the MCU for the foreseeable future. We're also currently set to see the third animated Spider-Verse entry, Beyond the Spider-Verse, on June 18, 2027, barring any further delays. But while there’s reason to be optimistic for the future of Spider-Man movies, we’ve also just received news of a potential dark shadow: Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman has confirmed that the studio intends to reboot their Sony Spider-Man Universe of spin-off films that recently crashed and burned with the failures of Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter.
Sony’s spin-offs have largely been savaged by critics, and they didn’t do well at the box office outside of the Venom trilogy. Given how little of an impact the movies have made despite being (somewhat) tied to Marvel’s most popular hero, it stands to reason that a change of approach is needed beyond just rebooting the franchise or hiring a new creative team. If Sony is serious about taking another stab at a spin-off universe, they need to stop working backwards by forcing villains into the roles of protagonists, and instead let actual heroes lead their superhero movies. Let’s take a look at how Sony’s Spider-Man Universe can make the second (or third or fourth) time the charm.
Paging Mr. Parker
The biggest frustration from fans in regards to Sony’s Spider-Man movies is that they simply never featured Spider-Man. We knew going into the first Venom movie that Eddie Brock wasn’t going to encounter Peter Parker, but the hope was that the two mortal enemies would maybe come to blows in one of the sequels. Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene even teased the possibility, only for it to be nixed by Spider-Man: No Way Home. Venom: The Last Dance set up the symbiote god Knull as a potential future threat, but now that we know a reboot is on the way, that thread isn’t going anywhere either. It really feels like the Venom trilogy gaslit fans by making them think we were going to see a showdown between Spidey and Venom, only for the latter to be stuck exclusively fighting other symbiotes and space monsters.
No matter how you feel about the quality of the Venom solo films, the fact remains that Venom never crossing over with Spidey was the trilogy’s biggest missed opportunity. There’s a long history of Venom solo comics that developed his own mythology and supporting cast apart from the wall crawler, but he debuted as an important facet of Spidey’s world, so it feels weird that the hero tied to Venom’s genesis is nowhere to be seen. We don’t know all of the specifics of the deal Sony and Marvel Studios have in regards to sharing Spider-Man’s film rights, so it’s plausible that there are legal obstacles preventing such a crossover. But surely it’s something that could be ironed out if Sony was serious about making their spin-off films the best that they could be.
What we do know is that Marvel intends to reset the MCU after Avengers: Secret Wars, so perhaps new spin-offs could be developed in closer collaboration with Marvel, allowing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man – presuming he’s kept around post-reset, although we’d wager he will be – to appear in them. Junking the likes of Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven, and starting fresh might make Marvel more willing to let Sony’s movies into the MCU continuity, especially since the Raimi and Webb films – and the Fox X-Men franchise – have been shanghaied into the shared universe via the multiverse in No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. However, it’s just as likely that Marvel will continue to want to distance Holland’s Peter Parker from Sony’s side projects...but that’s no reason to give up entirely. They just need to shift focus to different Spider-Heroes, of which there are more than enough to choose from.
Holding Out For a Hero
We’ve discussed previously at IGN that Sony putting so many villains into leading roles was a huge part of what doomed their first attempt at a shared universe. By taking antagonists and making them follow milquetoast 'hero’s journey' plots, they made boring films that didn’t understand why those characters worked in the original source material. Even the one movie that did star a heroic character, Madame Web, was a bizarre mess that made its lead nearly unrecognizable from her comic book counterpart. The first step in building a new Spider-Man universe is understanding that it’s possible to make Spider-Man movies without Peter Parker, but not if they star villains or side characters who feel intrinsically tied to him.
There are multiple other Spider-Heroes with long histories in the comic books who could be the leads of spin-off films. Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, had a solo comic that ran for nearly 50 issues in the 1990s. Audiences were already introduced to Miguel in something of an antagonistic role in Across the Spider-Verse, but you could easily make a film or even series of films with him as the main hero that sticks closer to Miguel’s personality from the comics. Likewise, Spider-Gwen aka Spider-Woman aka Ghost-Spider (they should really just pick a name for her already) has become hugely popular over the past decade, and could support a solo project that depicts the youth-oriented tales typical of Spider-Man films via a different lens.
The MC2 universe also gave us May "Mayday" Parker, aka Spider-Girl, the daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane. Audiences actually got to see an infant version of Mayday in Across the Spider-Verse. A film or show starring her in her prime could let us see Peter as a parental figure while also keeping the classic feel of Spider-Man stories intact. It’s not like Sony doesn’t understand the idea I’m positing here: They made Miles Morales the focus of their Spider-Verse trilogy, with Peter B. Parker as a supporting hero, and they're tackling an alternate reality series with Spider-Noir, albeit with that character renamed Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker. If they keep the focus on characters who actually make sense as protagonists, their spin-offs could likely find success, but it would also involve treating these characters with the respect they deserve...something that hasn’t always been Sony’s strongest suit.
You Won’t Get It For Free
An under-discussed aspect of why Sony’s adaptations of Spider-Man have taken a lot of flack over the years is what feels like a corporate assumption that people will always turn out for stuff that features the Spider-Man brand regardless of quality. It’s true that Spider-Man is one of the most beloved fictional heroes on Earth, but that doesn’t mean that anything with his name and face stamped on it is a guaranteed success. From interfering with director Sam Raimi’s vision for Spider-Man 3 to quickly rebooting the franchise with slapdash scripts in the Amazing Spider-Man films to believing that spin-offs about Morbius or Kraven were sure bets just because they were Spider-Man-adjacent characters, Sony has often shot themselves in the foot by taking their access to the Spider-Man license for granted.
That’s not to say that they’re incapable of making good decisions or producing great movies with the property. Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man films were landmark achievements that helped set the stage for the comic book movie boom of the early 2000s. The Spider-Verse animated features are brimming with creative energy and strong storytelling instincts. And although the Tom Holland solo movies do have some drawbacks, Sony has benefited tremendously from swallowing their pride and allowing Marvel to incorporate Spider-Man into the MCU when they didn’t have to do that. The fact that Sony set aside their plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4, a Sinister Six movie, and a team-up film with Silver Sable and Black Cat proves that they’re capable of taking a step back and reevaluating their path.
Should Sony's Spider-Man Universe continue?
Yes, there's still potential there.No, let it die.Audiences rejected the Sony Spider-Man Universe; there’s really no getting around that. Beyond Venom being an incredibly popular and merchandisable character, the rest of Sony’s spin-off slate struggled to gain any momentum. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to turn things around. With talented creatives who are given room to make the movies they want to make, a focus on heroic characters in the lead roles, and the grace to understand that audiences will leave your franchise behind if they don’t feel it’s worth their time, Sony could make a new attempt at a shared universe work. Will they, though? We’ll just have to wait and see in the future. "And you know the best thing about the future? It hasn't happened yet."
What do you think Sony should do with a reboot of their Spider-Man spin-offs? Let us know in the comments!
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