Producers Clarify Where ‘Venom’ Exists in the MCU and Sony Spider-Verse
For the past week, fans have been doing their best lawyer impressions and trying to figure out how movies like Venom and Spider-Man: Homecoming will connect in the broader Marvel universe. It wasn’t that long ago that Sony producer Amy Pascal hinted that Venom would be somewhat connected to the Spider-Man of the MCU, which confused the heck out of all of us and started the rumor mill working overtime on how Sony and Marvel’s properties might work together. Of course, as is always the case with the particularly juicy rumors, there was always the chance that someone misspoke.
And hey, guess what? Someone misspoke. In a recent interview with ComicBookMovie.com (via Heroic Hollywood), both Pascal and Marvel boss Kevin Feige did their best to unpack some of the rumors about the two studios and clarify how Sony’s Spider-Verse will (won’t) plug into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The long and short of it? We won’t see any of the extended Spider-Man universe sharing a screen with Tom Holland anytime soon. Probably. Here’s what Pascal had to offer as clarification:
Here’s what we’re doing: all these characters are a part of the Marvel comic book universe. In that universe, they are all related to each other. Kevin [Feige] makes characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These characters are separate, except for Spidey, who belongs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is why he’s there.
When asked by ComicBookMovie if that meant that Holland’s Spider-Man was off the table for the Sony standalone films, Kevin Feige weighed in on the likelihood of that happening:
We never say never. You could ask me, ‘Is Superman gonna be there?’ I go, ‘Never say never,’ but not any time soon.
GUYS SUPERMAN IS GOING TO JOIN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE! Alright, all joking aside, this… sorta?… makes sense. Sony owns the exclusive rights to a handful of Spider-Man characters, but not this Spider-Man, since they’ve struck a deal with Marvel to bring him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you revisit the 2015 Variety announcement of the deal, it doesn’t seem to prevent Sony from creating their own Spider-Man movies, though, which means that we could see two Peter Parkers at some point? Maybe? That could mean an older Spider-Man — one who would have gone to high school with Venom’s Tom Hardy, perhaps — or maybe one of his many Spider-Clones. Or maybe Miles Morales? Man, I would give my left pinky for 15 minutes in a windowless room with that Sony and Marvel contract.