After ceding creative control of the character to Marvel Studios after failing to maintain two separate Spider-Man franchises of their own, Sony are now in the midst of establishing their own cinematic universe of comic book characters familiar to fans of the web-slinger’s origins, despite not being able to feature Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as their marquee name.
The terms of the new deal between the rival studios indicates that the MCU’s Spider-Man will be able to make cameo appearances or play supporting roles in the Sony-verse, which is likely going to be just the loophole Sony needs to bring him in to battle the Sinister Six in the rumored spinoff.
Venom turned out to be a bigger success than many were expecting after earning over $850 million at the box office, and with a sequel to Eddie Brock’s solo debut and the Jared Leto-starring Morbius on the horizon, Sony’s Marvel Universe is keen to establish itself as a viable alternative to the MCU.
However, the studio are going to need to rely on characters outside of the Sinister Six if they want their franchise to have any sort of longevity, and a new rumor hints that they’re set to dive deep into the comic book catalogue, with standalone projects for a couple of obscure villains reportedly in the early stages of development.
One of the names being floated is Man-Wolf, who would fit into the established Spidey-adjacent mythology as the son of J.K. Simmons’ Daily Bugle chief J. Jonah Jameson, while the other is counter-terrorism operative Solo, a character that has strong comic book ties to both Black Cat and Silver Sable, who are also reportedly getting the spinoff treatment from Sony.
While nothing can be confirmed as of yet, it would certainly be a refreshing gamble for the studio to take a chance on two characters that most audiences wouldn’t be too familiar with, instead of focusing largely on Venom, Morbius and other villains that we’ve already seen before in previous Spider-Man flicks. But for now, we’ll just have to sit tight and see if these projects end up coming to fruition.
