Sony Pictures has confirmed it will reboot its Spider-Man spinoff universe films.
In a new interview on The Town With Matt Belloni podcast, Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, revealed the studio plans to eventually reboot its Spider-Man spinoff movie universe.
Though vague regarding details, Rothman was quick to answer “no” when he was asked if the “larger Spider-Verse” outside of the animated Spider-Verse was “dead,” and he answered “yes” when pressed if Sony will eventually revisit their spinoff IPs via a “fresh reboot [with] new people.”
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Despite owning the exclusive film rights to Spider-Man, Sony’s most recent Spider-Verse spinoff films such as Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter haven’t exactly been the most well-received by fans or critics.
Whether tonally inconsistent, misaligned with their original source material, or weak in script, these spinoffs within Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, or SSU, have mostly served as expensive misfires for the company.
Why Sony’s Spider-Man Spinoff Movies Flopped
Madame Web, released in February 2024, comes to mind as one of Sony’s worst Spider-Man spinoffs. The movie was a box-office failure, making just a little over $100 million against an $80 million budget. While former Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra suggested the film starring Dakota Johnson “under-performed in the theaters because the press just crucified it,” the superhero flick suffered from cheap-looking visual effects, bizarre ADR, a convoluted plot, and weak script, leading to it being viewed more as a meme than a movie.
Released December the same year, Sony’s Kraven the Hunter film starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson suffered a similar fate, earning a mere $62 million against an estimated $130 million budget. The movie was criticized for featuring weak dialogue, subpar CGI, and a thin story.
A few years prior, 2022’s Jared Leto-led Morbius also flopped thanks to a record-breaking 74 percent second-weekend box-office revenue drop. The internet then turned the vampiric anti-hero movie into a cultural laughingstock with a viral “It’s Morbin’ Time” campaign that led Sony to drag the dull film back into theaters weeks after release, only for more box-office humiliation.
Still, it hasn’t been all doom and gloom for Sony. Its Tom Hardy-led Venom franchise was hugely successful at the box office, with all three films — 2018’s Venom, 2021’s Let There Be Carnage, and 2024’s The Last Dance — making major money despite mixed-to-negative critical reviews, thanks largely to strong audience support for the chaotic, fan-favorite character.
