Credit: Marvel Studios/Sony PicturesThe future of Spider-Man is in jeopardy, particularly with multiple developments proving to be consequential failures.
When we think about Spider-Man, our minds often roam to images of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland, who have each portrayed the iconic character on the big screen. Yet, Sony Pictures has expanded Spider-Man’s cinematic universe far beyond these portrayals, both to acclaim and criticism. Through various cinematic adaptations, spin-offs, and collaborations with Marvel Studios, Sony has ventured into uncharted territories with the character, diversifying his narrative potential and exploring new dimensions of the Spider-Man mythos.
Silk: Spider Society is a forthcoming project slated for streaming on Amazon Prime, purportedly centering on Silk, also known as Cindy Moon, a character from Marvel comic books. Moon gained her abilities after being bitten by the same radioactive spider that granted Peter Parker his powers, transforming him into Spider-Man. Initially helmed by Angela Kang, showrunner and producer of “The Walking Dead,” the series had the potential to integrate various Spider-Man characters under Sony’s purview.
However, recent reports from The Ankler– which Inside the Magic previously covered— suggested that the entire writer’s room for Silk has been disbanded, indicating a shift toward targeting a predominantly male audience. Despite inquiries, Amazon has refrained from commenting on these developments, leaving the new direction of the show uncertain.
Some fans were happy to see the show delayed, saying that they are tired of “spinoffs.”
“Man nobody cares about no silk man I’ve never EVER heard anybody say “man i really wish we had a silk show” even among social media nerds no one is talking about silk like that lol,” @RobertJHimself said on X.
Others, however, say they are skeptical of Sony and the way they’ve handled the license for Spider-Man, particularly looking at the fact that the production company has gone into many new projects, including collaborations with Marvel Studios for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, as well as the Into the Spiderverse films with Miles Morales, and the new Madame Web movie, which just released in theaters and opened to a record-low for Sony Pictures at the box office.
“I said in my Madame Web review that Sony doesn’t know what they’re doing with the Spider-Man license,” Chris from CoveredGeekly said. “I still agree with this though the Spider-Verse films are amazing. Outside of that, they really don’t. We lost the entire writers room of Silk: Spider Society, that says enough.”
Another fan echoed these sentiments.
“If and when Kraven bombs, that’s three straight, HUGE fails…Marvel should be able to sue Sony for the rights to the live-action Spider-Man characters. It feels like Sony is purposely making bad films about this universe,” @iamgregbach said.
Of course, these failures have many fans wondering about the future of the Spider-Man character altogether, and it’s easy to see why their minds would turn to Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man first and foremost.
What’s the future of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man?
The last time we saw Tom Holland as Peter Parker, he had just defeated a myriad of villains alongside the multiversal versions of Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Holland confirmed that there are plans for a fourth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, but its release date or details have not been released.
“All I can say is that we have been actively engaging in conversations about what it could potentially look like for a fourth rendition of my character,” Holland told Collider. “Whether or not we can find a way to do justice to the character is another thing. I feel very protective over Spider-Man. I feel very, very lucky that we were able to work on a franchise that got better with each movie, that got more successful with each movie, which I think is really rare, and I want to protect his legacy.”
Though there are active conversations, it does not seem that Disney and Sony are ready to move forward with another film quite yet.
How is Spider-Man a part of the MCU?
The agreement between Disney (owner of Marvel Studios) and Sony regarding Spider-Man is a complex arrangement that governs the use of the character within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures owns the film rights to Spider-Man and related characters, a holdover from before Marvel Studios existed. However, in 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios reached an agreement to collaborate on the films.
This collaboration allows Spider-Man to be integrated into the MCU, starting with Captain America: Civil War (2016) and then his own film series, beginning with Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), which was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Sony Pictures. While Marvel Studios has creative control over Spider-Man films produced in collaboration with Sony, Sony Pictures retains the distribution rights and ultimately profits from the films.
Marvel Studios benefits from the inclusion of Spider-Man in the MCU and the ability to use the character in its interconnected storylines. The agreement also allows Spider-Man to appear in both standalone films produced by Sony and ensemble films produced by Marvel Studios, facilitating greater integration of Spider-Man into the wider MCU while still allowing Sony to develop its own Spider-Man-centric cinematic universe.