Sony‘s stewardship of the Spider-Man movie rights has had its ups and downs in the 22 years since Spider-Man first hit the big screen. It’s finally hit its biggest down, with the studio shuttering their plans for more Spider-Man universe movies. While the actual Spider-Man movies, both the ones starring Tom Holland that are made in conjunction with Marvel Studios and the Spider-Verse movies, will keep going, but all of the rest are done. This makes perfect sense, of course — flops like Morbius and Madame Web are what this cinematic universe is best known for. Even the Venom trilogy, which started out well enough, has become a disappointment.
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Kraven the Hunter, premiering on December 13th, is going to be the last of the Sony Spider-Man movies, ending an era of underwhelming films. While these movies have long been a punchline among fans, that doesn’t mean that this ending isn’t somewhat disappointing. There are some characters in the Sony Spider-Man-verse that we love, characters that deserved better than to be dropped into Limbo. Maybe they’ll come back in the future, but for now, their loss is a blow for their legions — well not legions, but for the fanbase they’ve built up.
Vulture Is One of the Best MCU Villains Ever and Deserves More Spotlight
Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home all take place in the MCU. However, beyond Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, very few characters that debuted in those movies have appeared outside of them. This is especially disappointing when it comes to Michael Keaton’s Vulture. Vulture was praised by fans and critics alike, and is usually on the short list of best MCU villains. Vulture was sympathetic — he was just a person trying to make a life for his family and his company — but also terrifying. Vulture was a perfect Spider-Man villain and would have been great in other MCU movies.
Vulture appeared in the Morbius post-credits scene and was teased for the long-planned Sinister Six movie, but that’s never going to happen now. Vulture is such a great character and getting more of his story would have been amazing. Maybe if fans are lucky, he’ll make some kind of appearance in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars, but for now, his story is over.
Sydney Sweeney’s Julia Carpenter Had a Lot of Potential
Madame Web has been called by many Sony’s biggest Spider-Man bomb. The movie was brutally panned by critics; the few people who paid to see it were even more savage. The movie had so many problems, it’s hard to go into all of them, but there’s one thing from Madame Web that deserved to be saved: Sydney Sweeney’s Julia Carpenter.
For one thing, her Spider-Woman costume was perfect and she looked a lot like the comic character. However, the biggest reason we wanted to see her stick around is her potential. Julia Carpenter in the comics was the second Spider-Woman, gaining her powers while part of an experiment from the Commission. Her powers — the common spider-powers of super strength, agility, stamina, speed, and the like, combined with psionic powers like the ability to spin psychic webs — made her unlike the other Spider-Women. She even was a full-time Avenger before Spider-Man, with Julia joining the Avengers West Coast while Spider-Man was still just a reverse Avenger. Carpenter could have been taken in loads of different directions, which makes her loss a tragedy. Sweeney is a better actor than she gets credit for, so her getting to play more of Julia as Spider-Woman had tons of potential.
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Carnage Is One of Spider-Man’s Most Popular Foes and Could Have Gone Further in the Films
Carnage is a legendary Spider-Man villain. Cletus Kasady was created in the wake of Venom becoming a superstar, a second symbiotic villain that took everything people liked about Venom and was dialed up to eleven. Carnage’s brutality and evil made him the perfect villain for the edgy ’90s, and he’s since become one of Marvel’s more popular villains. Carnage has starred in major storylines, as well as several miniseries and ongoings, and is well-known even among fans who aren’t dialed into the comics.
Casting Woody Harrelson as Carnage for Venom: Let There Be Carnage was a great choice. Harrelson’s performance as Carnage was one of the bright spots of a movie that underwhelmed fans and critics. Carnage’s fate at the end of Let There Be Carnage was left ambiguous, begging for a return. This fits Carnage, as the character has always shown a terrifying tendency to return from being dead. Fans would have loved another chance to see Harrelson as Carnage. There are still plenty of Carnage stories that can be told, and it’s sad that they more than likely won’t be now.
Knull Didn’t Even Get a Chance to Shine
Venom was the first bright spot in the Sony Spider-Man universe, with its success leading to a trilogy of Venom movies. The final movie — Venom: The Last Dance — introduced a character that has become extremely important to the lore of symbiotes in the Marvel Universe: Knull. Knull is the god of the Klyntar, the name for the symbiotes’ species, and became a universe-shaking enemy, starring in the company-wide crossover King in Black. Knull was rumored to be a major part of Sony’s plans moving forward and it made perfect sense — Knull had the potential to be a Thanos-level enemy for Sony’s characters.
The end of Sony’s Spider-Man universe of characters puts a kibosh on all that. Knull is one of the better new Marvel villains of the last decade, and could have been used as a potent big bad for the big screen. Sony even got Andy Serkis to play the character, which was a perfect bit of casting for the character. Knull barely got a chance to show his stuff to general audiences. Maybe Sony will let the MCU play with Knull, but the chances of that happening are infinitesimal.
Tom Hardy’s Venom Gave Fans a Great New Version of the Character
Venom was massively popular from the moment the character debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #300. Venom’s fan esteem led to him becoming a “lethal protector,” an anti-hero who starred in multiple miniseries throughout the ’90s. Venom has become one of the bedrocks of the Spider-Man corner of Marvel Comics, and his recent ongoing series’ — starting with the Donny Cates/Ryan Stegman Venom and leading into the current series — have made him a much bigger character in the Marvel Universe as a whole. It’s even something of a misnomer to say that Venom is part of the Spider-Man corner of things, as he has his own brood of symbiote-clad characters. Venom is a huge character in the Marvel pantheon and him getting his own films was a very big deal.
The Venom trilogy — Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Venom: The Last Dance — presented an entirely different version of Venom than what had been seen in the comics. The relationship between Eddie Brock and his symbiote was a big focus of the movies, casting them as something akin to bickering lovers. This unique look at Venom made him more beloved than ever, and has become a big part of the character’s charms. While his movies definitely were a series of diminishing returns, this Venom was a fan favorite and not getting to see him and the symbiote again is a sad thing.
