By The Disney-21st Century Fox merger is happening, and that means the rights to license Marvel superheroes for movies are in fewer hands than ever before. Asides from Disney/Fox, Sony is the only studio with access to film rights – and only those concerning Spider-Man.
However, Sony isn’t giving up. Venom releases this October, and Sony will be counting on its success to launch it’s own Spider-centric film universe, full of heroes and villains standard fare for the world of Spider-Man.
On that topic, Sony’s plans for that world have changed. Previously, Sony planned for Silver & Black, a feature film focusing on the exploits and adventures of the Silver Sable and Black Cat – both strong superhero’s in Spiderman-Canon. However, the film has been reworked into two standalone films; one for Silver Sable and one for Black Cat.
Gina Prince-Bythewood, the writer-director originally signed on for Silver & Black, isn’t expected to stay on board for both films. Instead, she’ll produce both films for Sony. The two films are early in the phase of production, with no big actors attatched to the projects yet.
Black Cat and Silver Sable are strong, seductive characters, but I have to wonder if Sony is betting too large with Venom. The first film in a universe has to be strong enough to bear the load for successive films, and with some wacky, CG-heavy trailers floating around the internet, my faith in Venom is not absolute.
We’ll have to see when Venom releases October 5th, 2018.
What’s Next for the Spider-Man Universe After ‘Venom’ (EXCLUSIVE) [Variety]