Once the dust settled from Sony’s landmark announcement involving its own Marvel Universe, question marks were raised as to whether Ruben Fleischer’s Venom movie would stand on its own two feet or, similarly to Spider-Man: Homecoming, be folded into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or, in the words of Sony chief Amy Pascal, be an “adjunct” to the MCU.
Those burning questions continued to echo around the four corners of the Internet for a number of weeks, and the muddled rhetoric from both Marvel and Sony – specifically Kevin Feige and Pascal – only exacerbated an already confusing situation. This past weekend brought some clarity, though, after representatives from Marvel and Sony’s camps went on record once again, this time to confirm that Venom and its embryonic brethren (see: Black Cat and Silver Sable) will stand on their own independent of the MCU.
Still with us? After much back-and-forth, it seems that both parties are finally signing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to Venom, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the two distinct cinematic universes to which they belong. Or are they? Just when you thought it was all settled, in comes Pascal to confuse us once again.
Speaking with Fandom in an interview to promote Homecoming along with Feige, the studio exec mentioned that though you won’t see characters like Venom, Silver Sable, Black Cat and the rest of the gang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they do exist “in the same reality.” Confused yet?
“First, there is Spider-Man happily in the place where he’s supposed to be which is in the Marvel Universe. I think everything comes from that. This is the signpost, the tentpole, the signature and… the other movies that Sony’s going to make, in their relationship to this [MCU] Spider-Man, take place in this [separate Sony] world. Although you’re not going to see them in the Marvel Universe, it’s in the same reality.”
So, what exactly does this mean? Honestly, we’re not quite sure, and frankly, we’re beginning to not even care anymore. This whole thing has been so frustrating and confusing that at this point, it’s almost best to just ignore any and all future comments from these two studio execs, who clearly can’t get on the same page about this particular issue.
If we had to guess, though, it sounds like we won’t ever see Venom in the flesh and blood, roaming around the MCU, but his film will still take place in the same world, meaning there could be references or nods to the wider universe. Does that mean Spider-Man will be involved in Sony’s spinoffs then? Fandom asked Pascal that very question, and here’s what she said:
“Venom is a character that is closely associated with Spidey and there may be some day where you see them together, you never know.”
A coy answer if there ever was one, and once again, we’re right back where we started, with a cloud of confusion surrounding the entire situation as we’re left to guess and speculate about just what the heck’s going on here.
Thankfully, Venom is gearing up to head into production soon, ahead of an October 2018 release, which means we should start to hear more about it in the not too distant future and once that happens, we’ll hopefully have a better idea of what exactly Sony is planning with their burgeoning cinematic universe.
