Sony's Spidey-Free 'Venom' Movie Gets 2018 Date; 'Aquaman' Runs Away

When The Amazing Spider-Man failed to launch a franchise the way Sony had hoped, they struck a desperate bargain with Marvel to bring the wallcrawler to the MCU. While that was a groundbreaking move that made millions of fans happy, it left Sony in an awkward position. The character is no longer just theirs, and if they wanted to build a Spidey franchise it would have to be separate from the MCU. The first inkling we got of this was when Venom re-emerged as a potential project, and now that film has been given a key release date. 

Sony has given Venom an October 5th 2018 release date, and has named Alex Kurtzman, of The Mummy reboot and writer/producer of the last batch of failed Spidey films, as its director. So as last year's story noted, the film will likely not have any mention of Spider-Man, which is weird because they are so intertwined. But it gives Sony a franchise character that belongs to them and can be built around. And who knows? Maybe at some point they strike another deal with Marvel for a crossover with Tom Holland's Spidey? 

You may have noticed that date is the same as Warner Bros.' upcoming Aquaman film starring Jason Momoa. Well, not anymore. Aquaman has been shifted over to December 21st 2018 which is where James Cameron's Avatar sequel would have been if it hadn't been delayed once again.