Spider-Man Out of MCU: 6 Exciting Sony Crossovers, From Venom to Multiverse

A disagreement between Disney and Sony led to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man removal from the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Tuesday, as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige steps away from producer on Sony’s Spider-Man films. Unless the two companies come to a new agreement, Spider-Man will never again fight with the Avengers, Doctor Strange, and Captain Marvel. Devastating this may be to fans, it actually opens up exciting opportunities for Spider-Man that weren’t possible before.

Previously, under Marvel’s guidance, it seemed like Holland’s Spider-Man could not appear in any other Sony projects. This meant Spider-Man couldn’t make an appearance in Venom. That was always the downside of Spider-Man appearing in Marvel team-up movies, but with that eliminated as a result of the Sony-Disney split, there’s potential for a more authentic version of Spider-Man who is A) actually broke, and B) doesn’t worship the ground Tony Stark walked on.

Spider-Man is his own man now, and here are a few reasons why we should all be excited. None of these were possible before this split, but now they are.

6. Kraven the Hunter

One of the distant Sony Marvel movies on the horizon is Kraven the Hunter, based on the Spider-Man villain who uses various mystical herbs to grant himself superhuman strength, durability, and reflexes while also drastically extending his life. He sought increasingly more dangerous hunts all over the world until he was challenged to take down Spider-Man. Thus began an ongoing conflict between the characters that famously led to Spider-Man’s death in one comics storyline.

In speaking with Discussing Film, screenwriter Richard Wenk revealed he’d started writing the film by October 2018 and said the aim was to include Spider-Man. “Because it is a big Marvel world there are a lot of hurdles to overcome before you can start writing, to crack the rights for it, to get the right tone,” he said. Wanting Spider-Man in the movie is one thing, but the previous Marvel-Sony agreement probably would have prevented that. Now it’s a non-issue.

Far From Home director Jon Watts previously said he’d love to do a Spider-Man/Kraven story in a movie. Suddenly, this just became inevitable.

5. Morbius

A Morbius movie from Sony starring Jared Leto as the titular “Living Vampire” is already scheduled for release on July 31, 2020.

In the comics, Dr. Michael Morbius has a rare blood disease and accidentally transforms himself into a pseudo-vampire during an experiment. Around the same time, Spider-Man grows an extra four arms as part of his ongoing mutation. Using Morbius’ blood, Peter Parker is able to reverse these effects and also help Doc Connors, aka Lizard, fix his own mutation.

Like with many of Sony’s tangential Spider-Man films in the works, a script without Spider-Man is probably already being actively produced. So don’t expect the Morbius film to follow the aforementioned plot from the comics. However, a Spider-Man movie involving Lizard and Morbius could make for a really interesting piece of body horror.

4. Venom 2 Post-Credits

One of the most obvious and exciting possibilities for Sony movies now that the company fully owns Spider-Man on its own terms is to incorporate Spidey into the ongoing slate of Venom movies starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock.

Of all these tangential Spider-Man films, Venom 2 is furthest along in production with a release date scheduled for October 2, 2020. The Venom post-credits scene already introduced Carnage as the main villain for the sequel, and as cool as it might be to see Spider-Man face off against his two most popular Symbiote villains in Venom 2, that won’t happen.

What does feel like a near certainty now, however, is Spider-Man appearing in the Venom 2 post-credits scene to set up some kind of other crossover feature.

3. A Better Spider-Man 3 /Venom 3

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 may have bungled its use of Venom as a villain in a superhero film that gets more hate than the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy, but there’s no denying that any conflict between Spider-Man, Venom, and Carnage is a story worth watching.

In various iterations of these characters, Venom is an anti-hero and antagonist to Spider-Man, but once Carnage become a threat to them both, they’re forced to team up. Under other circumstances, this would be the perfect plot for Venom 2, but that won’t be the case. The other alternative is that a similar plot unfolds as part of either Spider-Man 3 or Venom 3.

2. Sinister Six

The post-credits scene from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starring Andrew Garfield delivered an obvious tease for a Sinister Six movie, or at least the implication that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 would have involved Spidey’s rogue’s gallery teaming up against him.

The Marvel Studios angle is almost always about solo superhero films with cameos that eventually lead to the inevitable huge team-up. That’ll still be the case in the MCU Phase Four and beyond. Now that Sony has reclaimed Spider-Man, the opposite will seemingly be the case: a series of villain solo films that lead to them teaming up against Spider-Man. Such a plot has worked time and again in Spider-Man stories, most recently in the Spider-Man video game for the Sony PlayStation 4.

Such a team-up could involve Kraven, Morbius, Vulture, Mysterio (if he lived through Far From Home somehow), Carnage, and Venom. But there’s also nothing stopping Sony from introducing other villains like Doc Oc, Rhino, the Lizard, Green Goblin, Electro, or Chameleon.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2

Perhaps the most exciting implication of the Disney-Sony split is that Holland can now be a part of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel or even a live-action introduction alternative that introduces Miles Morales.

In June 2019, Tom Holland told UK’s JOE in June that in one version of Into the Spider-Verse, his Peter Parker would have had a cameo. The movie’s co-director Rodney Rothman told The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith in January 2019 that a scene was written with three extra Peter Parkers voiced by Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire who each played the character in live-action within the past two decades. Concrete reasoning was never given for this scene being cut, but it probably has something to do with licensing issues as a result of the previous Disney-Sony partnership.

But in this brave new world, anything is possible across this vast Spider-Verse. Holland could have a cameo or even a more substantial role in an Into the Spider-Verse sequel, and there’s also the fact that earlier this week, Sony purchased Insomniac Games, the developer behind the award-winning Spider-Man game for PlayStation 4.

The endgame here could be an interconnected Spider-Verse that persists across live-action movies, animated movies, and the video game. We can only hope.

The next Spider-Man movie under Sony has no release date, but the earliest we might see Sony Holland could be in the Venom sequel.