Venom hits this November and is set up as the beginning of a new universe of cinematic comic book characters from Sony pictures or, as we like to call it, the Spider-man cinamatic universe without Spider-man.

The universe, after Venom, will delve into Morbius directed by Daniel Espinosa and starring Jared Leto  as the undead anti-hero. Then it’ll be on to Kraven the Hunter and other movies including Silk, Jackpot and Nightwatch which are all at the planning stages.

The franchise at the studio itself is rumoured to be called Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters or SUMC.

But what about the Silver and Black movie? Why isn’t it listed above anywhere? Well, because it’s scrapped.

Sort of.

“We believe Black Cat is enough of her own character with a great backstory and a canon of material to draw from to justify her own film,” said Sanford Panitch, president of Columbia Pictures and the guy overseeing the SUMC.

Oh, and don’t worry Silver Sable fans, she’s getting a movie too.

“Spider-Man connects to a lot of the characters,” said Panitch.

“There are villains, heroes and antiheroes, and a lot are female characters, many of whom are bona fide, fully dimensionalised and utterly unique.”

“We feel there’s no reason the Marvel characters shouldn’t be able to embrace diversity,” he added.

We agree, we think there’s a very big toy box and there’s room for everyone and anyone to play in there.

R-Rated Venom?

But what about Venom? Is the hard-core R-Rated outing still on the cards? After all, Sony have said in the past that they want entries in the vein of Logan and Deadpool, leaning into the adult audience a little more… well, hard to say at the minute.

Variety  are reporting the Sony may be a little less excited at going R-rated: “Some members of Sony’s brain trust believe that the film should push the very limits of PG-13 without crossing over into a higher rating. The feeling is that will give the studio greater leeway for future installments that will feature Spider-Man.”

Hmmmmmm… sounds to is like there are plans afoot although we always believed Spider-man may already be part of this universe (read all the reason why here).

The article goes to say: “Any Spider-Man movie will carry a PG-13 rating because the wall-crawler is more family friendly, and if “Venom” is too dark and gory, it might preclude other film match-ups, not just with Peter Parker’s alter-ego, but also with other members of the extended Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).”

Trust us, remember we reported from SDCC 2018 (here) that the Venom panel believed that Spider-man and Venom will meet someday? We believe something is afoot here….

Oh, and there’s more: “Sony is open to having other characters from its Spider-Man films pop up in Marvel movies that are produced under the Disney aegis, and would presumably also like to see an Avenger or two cameo in its own movies.”

Trust us… worlds WILL collide.

Source: Variety