Spider-Man is without a doubt one of the most lucrative superheroes ever put to film. With three different franchises, and countless appearances in the MCU, Spider-Man proves to be successful time and time again. Yet, Sony in their attempt to get a Spier-Man Villain Universe off the ground has failed at every turn.
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Sony's initial Sam Raimi-driven Spider-Man trilogy held the mantle as the reigning champion of the superhero movie genre for a long time
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However, a lot has changed about the art of making comic book films in the intervening 20 years
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a fact that somehow seems lost on Sony executives with their repeated attempts at launching a cinematic universe
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I'm not sure how I got here. Has to do with Spider-Man, I think
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I think a bunch of guys like us should team up. Cast your minds back before every intellectual property known to man had a cinematic universe connected to it
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Despite Spider-Man 3 being a box office smash, Sony announced it was abandoning plans for a Spider-Man 4 starring Tobey Maguire
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This would obviously give way to the two Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield
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Spider-Man. During the lead-up to the premiere of Amazing Spider-Man, superhero mega-producer Avi Arad discussed the potential of having a solo Venom franchise
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outside of these new Spider-Man films, making this the first stutter step toward the shared
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and connected filmic universe featuring villains of the old webhead. This plan was further expanded
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with the release of Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was intended to lay the groundwork for a network
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of films, the initial two supposedly being Venom and a Sinister Six film. Needless to say
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Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed at the box office, leading everyone at Sony to rethink this direction
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And a mere two years later, Marvel stepped in to take Spider-Man back under control for Captain
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America Civil War. And here's where our story splits in two halves. On one half, we have the
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MCU Spidey films and mega producer Amy Pascal's efforts to develop a potential animated Spider-Man
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project And on the other hand we have the eventual shared universe of Spider villain films 2016 saw Avi Arad and Matt Tolmak back in the producing seats bringing Venom to the big screen
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this time as a solo character with an eye on building a universe around him
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We are Venom. Venom might be a symbiote from an alien world, but in the comics
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most of the character's actual powers come from the time he was bonded to Peter Parker
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Venom's origin, his motivation, and his powers are all tied directly to a character Sony couldn't really use
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So what do you do? Well, logically, you'd probably start with the idea of making a tragic downfall of a journalist consumed with jealousy
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That's not what Sony opted for. Instead, it's a movie about Tom Hardy doing a funny voice and fighting with himself
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You are a loser, Eddie. And you know what? Surprisingly, this thing worked
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Well, at least on the financial front. Believe it or not, the movie that's been in on-again, off-again development since the 90s
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actually demolished at the box office. It pulled in approximately $856 million worldwide
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Avi Arad's dreams were finally coming true, a shared universe of Spider-Films
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But now, with the bizarre restriction of still not having Spider-Man. What if everyone forgot who I was
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What? This time make everyone forget who Peter Parker is. We'd have no memory of you
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It would be as though you never existed. Out of this situation, a flurry of announcements happened after having been put on the backburner
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Chief among them were a supposed night watch film that Spike Lee was going to direct
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a Black Cat and Silver Sable team-up film, and a reworked version of The Sinister Six
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I am a lion! Obviously, none of these films ever came to be
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What we got instead was more of the same, but with an added sprinkling of Woody Harrelson
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Shut your mouth Venom Let There Be Carnage is one of the most phoned and by superhero sequels ever produced The snooze fest would have been a lot more fun if Harrelson actually looked like a psychotic clown the whole runtime
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But you know what? It didn't matter. It made a ton of money
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Over $500 million to be precise. That being said, at least the film is only 96 minutes long
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And if you thought this movie was a low point for global culture, you missed the next entry into the Spider-Man villain universe
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April 1st, 2022 saw the release of the much-delayed and obviously heavily re-edited Morbius
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This film just failed to sink its teeth into anything substantial at the box office
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pulling in only $167 million worldwide. But here's the kicker. Morbius is the only theatrically released feature film to fail twice
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That's right. After the film bombed the first time, the internet did what the internet does and mercilessly made fun of the film
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giving Michael Morbius the fake catchphrase, It's Morbid Time. Attempting to capitalize off the memification of the poor quality of the film
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they re-released it into theaters only for literally no one to show up again
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It failed epically. Both Venom films feel like coldly calculated movies from directors looking to have a boost to their careers
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while Morbius just feels like a miscast story told by someone who had absolutely no passion for what they're attempting to say
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And now here we are, staring down the barrel of three more movies set in this universe
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Kraven the Hunter, Venom 3, and a Madame Web film. All of these are supporting characters and don't have a reason to exist
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outside of being a foil for some aspect of Spider-Man's personality. So, when you remove Spider-Man, what are you trying to tell a story about
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Now that Spider-Man's gone, the city will never be the same. If Morbius and Venom were released in the early 2000s alongside Daredevil Ang Lee Hulk and Ghost Rider they would feel absolutely at home Studios were still somewhat unsure of how faithfully they should be adapting the tried and true trappings of the superhero genre
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No bright colors, no spandex, and no big ideas for the universe that the heroes lived in
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That's exactly how all these Sony Spider-Villains films feel. They're stuck being self-conscious adaptations of characters that don't need to have $200 million
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poured into them. And Kraven might be the best example of this phenomenon
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He is weak, like his mother. Leave him. Venom? Huge fanbase. He's even been an anti-hero during his Lethal Protector era
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Morbius? Sure, you could probably find some way of making a cool Blade-esque or
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Dracula in modern times movie out of that character. But Kraven? He's got one attribute
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He's a hunter. His motivation is to take down the most dangerous prey
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The movie they're trying to convince us to go see, he's a super-powered vigilante
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It's Dexter meets them animal. He has the ability to absorb animal powers
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and then he hunts criminals. No, that's not a Kraven movie. That's a movie produced by people who don't care or like the character
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If you don't know the source material, maybe don't make it into a movie
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You're a goddamn lunatic. Oh, you just figured that out now? And it's not going to be slowing down anytime soon
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There are reports that as many as eight new spider villain movies are currently in active development
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The two we currently know the most about are a Donald Glover project centering on HypnoHustler
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and a movie about El Muerto, which at one time was set to star Bad Bunny
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Sony isn't attempting to accomplish anything other than to pick up the scraps that the MCU and the DCU leave behind
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Their cynicism is evident over every frame of these films, and apparently it's financially
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successful for them. It's just a tragedy that these characters and audience are the ones truly suffering
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