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Sony’s handling of the Spider-Man franchise has been something of a mixed bag. While they have had some highly successful Spider-Man movies, such as the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, other films like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 have been poorly received. Some of the most heavily criticized projects from Sony Pictures’ output are the spin-offs based on Spider-Man villains. Sony’s Spider-Man villain universe has been hitting theaters since 2018, with Venom. Although the Tom Hardy Venom trilogy has been a hit with fans, other films in this saga have failed to muster much audience interest. Comparatively, the MCU Spider-Man movies have reinvigorated the main Spider-Man series, providing some exciting action-packed escapades for Tom Holland’s web-slinger.
News has recently been circulating that Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man villain universe may be coming to an end. According to Comic Book Movie.com, Sony has canceled all the planned Spider-Man villain movies. These include a motion picture based on Knull, who was introduced in Venom: The Last Dance. This game-changing decision by Sony Pictures may spell big things for the MCU Spider-Man franchise. The end of the villain’s universe may grant Marvel Studios the chance to utilize these characters in movies that give them the respect they deserve and show why they are beloved by Marvel Comics readers.
The MCU Spider-Man's Critical Reception Has Been More Impressive Than The Sony Pictures Villains Universe
Sony’s Spider-Man villain universe has not only been poorly received by fans, but critics have also expressed disdain at the franchise’s direction. The Venom movies are the highest rated on Rotten Tomatoes, with the first film achieving 31% rotten, while Venom: Let There Be Carnage saw a significant improvement with a 58% approval rating, and Venom: The Last Dance closed the trilogy with 40%.
Morbius, meanwhile, was a huge disappointment, with a measly 15% rotten, and this was followed by Madame Web’s 11% and Kraven the Hunter’s 15%. Main criticisms surrounding these disastrous flicks include Kraven the Hunter being described as being «about as exciting as the board meeting from which it surely sprang» by Wall Street Journal’s Zachary Barnes, and Madame Web’s «clumsy exposition» slammed by TimeOut’s Elizabeth Weitzman.
The MCU’s Spider-Man movies, meanwhile, have been heavily praised by professional reviewers.
The first of the Tom Holland trilogy, Spider-Man: Homecoming, secured an impressive 92% fresh rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website. DiscussingFilm’s Nicolas Delgadillo, for instance, praised the film for getting «everything right about Peter Parker,» while CNET’s Mike Sorrentino described the movie as «a breath of fresh air.» Subsequent MCU Spider-Man films have retained their strong reputation among critics, with Spider-Man: Far From Home achieving 91% fresh and Spider-Man: No Way Home being enjoyed by 93% of reviewers.
The enormous success of the MCU Spider-Man films has seen Tom Holland’s iteration of Peter Parker hailed as «the best on-screen web-slinger» by writers including MSB Reviews’ Manuel Sao Bento, and as delivering «a good time at the movies» by Screen Zealot’s Louisa Moore. The MCU Spider-Man movies are regarded as three of the best Sony Marvel movies.
The strong reputation of Marvel Studios’ take on Spider-Man may have established some strong trust between Sony Pictures and Marvel’s movie division. Their handling of the Tom Holland trilogy shows that they know how to best handle these characters and give them the character arcs and action sequences that audiences want to see. Michael Keaton’s Vulture became so beloved by moviegoers following his debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming that Sony Pictures opted to bring Adrian Toomes back for a post-credits cameo in their Morbius film. He was used prominently in the Morbius trailers as a major selling point for the film.
Spider-Man: Far From Home’s incorporation of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio is also fantastic, using the manipulative bad guy’s use of illusions as a means to explore Peter’s grief over the loss of his mentor, Tony Stark, by having Mysterio generate a vision of Tony Stark’s corpse.
It concludes magnificently with Quentin Beck framing Peter for his death and exposing his identity as Spider-Man, showing how, even after his death, Quentin has the capability to destroy Peter’s life completely. Based on their cinematic history with Spider-Man, Sony Pictures may view the MCU as the tonic they need to salvage the franchise’s reputation following the villain spin-offs.
Sony's Villain Universe Ending Will Give The MCU More Creative Freedom
The greatest aspect of Sony’s villain universe coming to an end is how it could give the MCU more creative freedom. While Sony’s villain movies were in production, they imposed limits on Marvel Studios as to which Spider-Man antagonists they could use in the Tom Holland films.
Popular individuals like Kraven the Hunter and Venom were blocked from being used in the Marvel Studios films, due to Sony’s interest in exploring them for their own solo outings. If there are to be no more villain spin-offs, then Sony Pictures will have no reason to prevent the MCU from using their rights in Tom Holland’s films. Giving a greater pool of characters to choose from would open up more storytelling avenues for Marvel.
Whereas previously, Marvel Studios were unable to adapt these comics, Sony’s U-turn on these films would allow the MCU to depict several iconic comic-book storylines.
«Kraven’s Last Hunt» has been a long-requested plot from the comics to be brought to the big screen, but Kraven the Hunter’s film scrapped any possibility of this being explored with Tom Holland’s web-slinger. With no further Kraven the Hunter movie on the horizon, however, Marvel Studios can finally tell this tale of Peter being stalked by Kraven, and show how Tom Holland’s Peter Parker reacts to Kraven tarnishing his reputation by dressing as Spider-Man.
Sony’s Venom franchise also came to an end with Venom: The Last Dance, meaning that the MCU may finally be able to follow up on Spider-Man: No Way Home’s post-credits tease, which saw a piece of the Venom symbiote be left behind in the Holland Spider-Man’s universe after Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock is unexpectedly transported into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man 3’s take on the Venom plot was underwhelming, and the MCU could now have the chance to do the story justice.
Marvel Studios has the perfect pieces in play to properly explore Tom Holland’s Venom arc. Spider-Man: No Way Home depicted the death of Peter’s Aunt May, at the hands of the Sam Raimi Green Goblin. Peter is likely to be in a dark place after losing such an important figure in his life, and the Venom symbiote preys on Peter’s darker impulses. Aunt May’s demise provides the ideal opportunity for the symbiote to bond with Peter and to negatively influence his behavior. This would also play into how Peter is set to meet the Punisher, who, as a violent and abrasive figure, is far from the ideal mentor for Peter Parker. The symbiote could convince Peter that the Punisher’s brutal methods are right and send him spiraling down a bleak path.
Additionally, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to take on the «Secret Wars» narrative from the comics, which featured the debut of Peter’s black symbiote suit. «Secret Wars» will include Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards, who helped Peter with analyzing the Venom symbiote in the Baxter Building lab after obtaining it from space. Marvel Studios has the potential to present the most faithful adaptation of the Venom story arc yet.
Another possibility is that Kevin Feige’s Marvel division could make use of Madame Web. The original intention for the Madame Web film was for it to be a part of the MCU. Screen Crush has reported that it was going to deliver an origin story for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. Sony’s deal with Marvel Studios, which prohibits Sony from using Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, scuppered the idea, forcing Madame Web’s screenplay to be rewritten to be independent from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
There is some merit in the idea that the MCU Peter’s emergence as a hero was predestined by a psychic being like Madame Web, though. It plays into the interesting notion of whether someone truly has free will if their actions were already foreseen by someone else, which was explored to great effect in Loki, with He Who Remains having created the TVA to secure the Sacred Timeline.
The MCU reviving this plot thread would be a great idea, and would be significantly more fascinating to watch than Sony’s Madame Web movie. Sony’s Spider-Man villains are popular because of their connection to Spider-Man, as they challenge Peter’s responsibilities as a hero.
Having Peter find out through Madame Web that he was always destined to become Spider-Man would drastically alter his worldview. It would see Peter question how many of his choices were made by him, and how many were predetermined by the fixed timeline, which is an idea that has yet to be explored in a live-action Spider-Man film.
Marvel's Spider-Man
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