When it comes to straightforward Spider-Man movies, Sony Pictures has been knocking it out of the park in recent years with the Tom Holland-led MCU-set adventures and the animated Spider-Verse film series. The Spider-Man-adjacent movies, on the other hand, have largely failed to impress ever since Venom launched got that cinematic ball rolling in 2018. Now Sony chairman and CEO Tom Rothman has confirmed that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is being rebooted, and I hope this new iteration of the franchise takes away one big lesson from its predecessor’s failure.
Before I get into that, let’s first talk about what Rothman specifically said. While appearing on The Town with Matthew Belloni, the Sony boss confirmed to the podcast’s title host that the “larger Spider-Verse” is not dead and that it will be retuned to at some point. However, it will be a “fresh reboot” with “new people,” and Rothman later added:
Scarcity has value. You got to make the audience miss you.
I think it’s safe to say that most Marvel fans won’t shed a tear about the first iteration of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe ending. Although the Venom movies were commercially successful, it’s not like they were critical darlings. Then Morbius, Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter just flopped across the board, so it’s best to put this chapter of Spider-Man film story to a close. Which is ironic considering that Spider-Man never actually appeared in any of these movies.
Which brings me to the big lesson I mentioned earlier: this new franchise needs to actually include the Web-Slinger. It’s always been weird that Spidey never had a presence in these earlier movies despite the fact that all these characters are part of his rogues gallery or, in the case of Madame Web, one of his allies. And yes, I’m aware that an infant Peter Parker is born during the Dakota Johnson-led movie, but I’m talking about seeing a suited-up adult Peter spinning webs and crawling on walls in the next version of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Or just skip Peter and have Miles Morales be this franchise’s Spider-Man, as he deserves to be depicted in live action.
I’m not saying Sony’s Spider-Man Universe 2.0 can’t include villain-centric movies, but they need to directly tie to Spider-Man rather than jump through hoops to try and exclude him. That was my biggest problem with the previous franchise, although certainly not the only one. Tom Rothman and the rest of the Sony leadership know where thing went wrong with those Spidey spinoffs, so let’s hope they learn from those mistakes rather than repeat them.
In the meantime, we’ll reunite with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker when Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings onto the 2026 movies schedule on July 31. Then Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales will jump back into action when Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse follows on June 18, 2027. It was also recently reported that an animated Venom movie is in the works, though it’s still unclear if it will be connected to any of the established franchises.
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