El Muerto (2024 Film)

Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, the films are based on various Marvel Comics characters and properties commonly associated with Spider-Man.

Work on an expanded universe using supporting characters from the ''Spider-Man'' films began by December 2013. Sony Pictures planned to use ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' (2014) to launch several spin-off films focused on Spider-Man villains from the comics, including a Venom film. After the relative critical and financial disappointment of ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'', these plans were abandoned and in February 2015, Sony announced a deal to collaborate with Marvel Studios on future ''Spider-Man'' films and integrate the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This relationship produced '' Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017), '' Spider-Man: Far From Home'' (2019), and '' Spider-Man: No Way Home'' (2021), while Sony separately redeveloped ''Venom'' (2018) as a stand-alone film later established as beginning its own fictional universe. Sony and Marvel Studios renegotiated their deal in 2019 to share the Spider-Man character between the MCU and their standalone Marvel-based films. ''Venom'' was followed by '' Venom: Let There Be Carnage'' (2021) and '' Morbius'' (2022), both of which have mid-credit scenes that feature elements from the multiverse concept to link the SSU with the MCU. ''Venom'' and ''Morbius'' received negative reviews from critics while ''Venom: Let There Be Carnage'' received mixed reviews. The series has grossed a combined $1.5 billion worldwide.

Sony is developing a number of live-action films based on Marvel characters, with scheduled releases for ''Kraven the Hunter'' in 2023, and ''El Muerto'' and ''Madame Web'' in 2024. Several more films are in various stages of development, and Sony Pictures Television is developing several live-action television series set in the same shared universe, beginning with ''Silk: Spider Society''.

Name

Sony officially announced their new shared universe—based on various Marvel Comics properties and characters commonly associated with Spider-Man—in May 2017, with the title "Sony's Marvel Universe". By August 2018, it was being referred to as "Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters" internally at the company. In March 2019, a Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation referred to the "Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters" (SPUMC), and Sony later confirmed that this was the official name for its shared universe. The presentation applied the title to Marvel Studios' ''Spider-Man'' films and the animated ''Spider-Verse'' films as well as Sony's own live-action Marvel adaptations. The title was widely criticized, with commentators mocking its length compared to shorter franchise names like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and DC Extended Universe (DCEU), as well as the acronym "SPUMC". James Whitbrook of ''io9'' questioned why the term "Spider-Verse" was not being used. Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch stated that Sony did not want to refer to their shared universe as the "Spider-Verse" since it encompassed many characters separate from Spider-Man. Despite this, Sony announced in August 2021 that the franchise had been renamed "Sony's Spider-Man Universe" (SSU).

Development

Background

In January 2010, Sony announced that the ''Spider-Man'' film franchise would be rebooted after director Sam Raimi decided to no longer continue his version of the franchise. By March 2012, Sony was still interested in a spin-off film they had been developing centered on the character Venom, looking to capitalize on the release of the first reboot film, ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' (2012). That June, producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach discussed ''Venom'' and ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' in reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how the different franchises set in that world crossed over with '' The Avengers'' (2012). Tolmach stated, "Hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday." In December 2013, Sony revealed plans to use ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' (2014) to establish their own expanded universe based on the Marvel properties the studio had the film rights to, including Venom. Arad and Tolmach would produce the films as part of a franchise brain trust that also included Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, and Drew Goddard, and ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' director Marc Webb. However, after ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' underperformed and with Sony "under tremendous pressure to perform", the direction of the new shared universe was rethought.

Following the November 2014 hacking of Sony's computers, emails between Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released, stating that Sony was planning to "rejuvenate" the ''Spider-Man'' franchise by developing an animated comedy film with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Sony executives were set to discuss the project further in a discussion regarding several ''Spider-Man'' spin-off films at a summit in January 2015. In February 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios announced a new partnership that would see the latter produce the next Spider-Man film for Sony, and integrate the character into the MCU. Sony still planned to produce the spin-off films without Marvel's involvement, but these were believed to have been "scrapped" by November, with Sony instead focusing on its new reboot with Marvel. Discussing the animated film during that year, Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman said it would "co-exist" with the live-action Spider-Man films, though Sony stated it would "exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe". The animated film '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'' (2018) is set in an alternate universe from the Marvel Spider-Man reboot but introduces the comic-based concept of the "Spider-Verse" multiverse, in which different incarnations of Spider-Man can be brought together; Sony was excited by the possibility of crossovers between the live-action and animated films after seeing the quality of ''Into the Spider-Verse''.

Sony's shared universe

''Venom'' was revived by Sony in March 2016, envisioned as a standalone film unrelated from Sony and Marvel's new ''Spider-Man'' films, which would launch its own franchise and shared universe. In May 2017, Sony confirmed that ''Venom'' was not considered a spin-off of any other film, and would officially begin its own shared universe. Sony was looking to build out this new universe gradually rather than rush in as they had previously tried with the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' spin-offs. In July, Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch explained that they were looking to "do what's the absolute best for each individual property. I just want to honor the original DNA." Because of this, Sony was hoping that individual filmmakers would give each film its own distinct style rather than having a single person in charge of the universe as with the MCU's Kevin Feige. The studio also wanted to avoid "conventional comic-book movies", with the intention of dealing in different genres such as horror or comedy, potential R-ratings, and even lower-than-usual budgets, depending on each project.

By March 2018, Sony's executive vice president Palak Patel was overseeing all of the universe's films for the studio. In July, ''Vulture'' interviewed several creatives involved in the universe to try alleviate the fears of some fans concerning Sony's plans. Jonathan Goldstein—writer of the first MCU ''Spider-Man'' film, '' Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017)—said the future of the universe would be decided by the success of ''Venom'', and noted that other studios had struggled to replicate Marvel Studios' MCU success. Brian Michael Bendis, comic creator of many Marvel characters that Sony planned to add to its universe, consulted on ''Into the Spider-Verse'' and was aware of Sony's plans for its shared universe. He described them as "very cool. Fans wouldn't be annoyed with what they're doing." He added that MCU films such as ''Iron Man'' (2008) and ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' (2014), which he was also involved in, were considered risks due to the lack of familiarity that general audiences had with those properties, but they both went on to be successful. He said this could also happen to lesser-known Spider-Man characters. In August, Sony was confirmed to have the rights to 900 Marvel Comics characters, and Panitch explained that "Spider-Man connects to a lot of the characters. There are villains, heroes, and antiheroes, and a lot are female characters, many of whom are bona fide, fully dimensionalized, and utterly unique. We feel there's no reason the Marvel characters shouldn't be able to embrace diversity." When asked whether Venom would act as the "common thread" throughout the shared universe, Sony said this was not necessarily the case as they wanted ''Venom'' to be standalone, but said ''Venom'' would have "key points of intersection" with other films.

Following the successful release of ''Venom'', Pascal said some of Sony's "previously shelved plans" could now come to fruition, including a crossover based on the villainous Sinister Six team. In March 2019, Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tony Vinciquerra said the "next seven or eight years" of the shared universe had been planned.

Marvel Cinematic Universe connections

Feige stated in June 2017 that because ''Venom'' was solely a Sony project, Marvel Studios had no plans to have it crossover with the MCU. However, producer Amy Pascal soon clarified that Sony intended to have their new Marvel-based films take place in "the same world" as ''Spider-Man: Homecoming'', describing them as "adjunct" to that world. She said that ''Venom'' would have connections with the next planned film in Sony's shared universe, '' Silver & Black'', and that there was potential for Tom Holland's Spider-Man to crossover from the MCU films to the films in Sony's universe. Holland was not contracted to appear outside of a trilogy of ''Spider-Man'' films and several other MCU films, but Sony intended to have the actor appear in their other Marvel films eventually. According to several reports, Holland spent several days during ''Venom''s production filming a cameo appearance as Peter Parker / Spider-Man for the film, but Marvel Studios asked Sony to exclude the scene from the final film. By August 2018, Sony was actively planning to crossover Spider-Man with their own Marvel films, describing the character and Venom as "already in the same universe... we are looking forward to the two of them eventually facing off in the future". Sony was also open to more of their characters appearing in MCU films in exchange for more MCU characters appearing in their own films. In December, ''Venom'' writer Jeff Pinkner