When The Amazing Spider-Man 2 wasn’t met with the critical or commercial success that Sony had hoped it would, plans for the Spider-Man franchise were suddenly thrown into jeopardy. However, now that the studio is further removed from that underwhelming title, it appears that Sony is still holding steady in its plans to deliver more of the beloved webhead.
There’s a Sinister Six title in the works, with Drew Goddard helming, and plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4 are currently underway. Perhaps most exciting, though, is a Venom spinoff, which may or may not be titled Venom Carnage and could potentially arrive as early as 2017. We didn’t know much more about it than that, but producer Alex Kurtzman recently shed further light on the project at the premiere of CBS series Scorpion.
Talking to MTV about why Venom appeals as an antihero, Kurtzman stated:
“Well, Venom is sort of the flip side in that there are certain lines that Spider-Man won’t cross because he’s Peter Parker and Peter Parker will only do certain things and Venom is an entirely different character.”
The trick to making a Venom movie is to keep the character as horrifying and dark as he was in the comics, and that’s what Kurtzman is talking about here. The idea of Venom as a full-blooded antihero is a promising one – though the idea of building a blockbuster around a character like that must be an unnerving one for Sony.
Kurtzman, however, couldn’t be more thrilled to take on the challenge. Elaborating on the nature of Venom, he said:
“Venom, in a weird way, is the representation of every line that will get crossed. He’s a much darker character. I wouldn’t even really say more complicated because I think they’re both very complicated characters, but I think the attraction for me to Venom is the idea that you can do things that you can’t do with Spider-Man.”
It’s exciting to hear Kurtzman express that idea, seeing as the last time Venom appeared on-screen was in Spider-Man 3, a disastrous mess of a film that squandered the character on nearly the same level that X-Men Origins: Wolverine did Deadpool. A spinoff will hopefully allow the franchise to build Venom into a complex, three-dimensional character capable of going toe-to-toe with Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man dramatically as well as physically.
That a Venom title is still in the works even after somewhat disappointing numbers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a testament to how strongly Kurtzman and others at Sony believe in the webhead’s everlasting appeal. Said Kurtzman:
“Spider-Man has always occupied its own wonderful, unique space and the stories have evolved. You know, Spider-Man actually has the benefit of having had so many more movies than even some of the movies that have 2s and 3s in front of them now from Marvel and so I think as long as it keeps staying true to character and true to who Peter is, and putting him in interesting and complicated situations, it’ll survive because it’s so beloved. Everybody loves Spider-Man.”
There are definitely many more Spider-Man stories to be told, and now that the character has been set on a darker path following the tragic conclusion of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it should be thrilling to watch Kurtzman and others bring some excellent comic-book arcs to life. And as comic-book fans know, once Venom arrives on the scene, everything is going to change for Spider-Man.
Here’s hoping Sony is truly ready to take that leap.
