From my perspective, Sony is dangerously close to making the same mistake of jumping the gun early as they did with Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man. Already we're hearing more and more about their cinematic universe and the many movies they have in store, such as Tom Hardy's Venom and the teamup flick Silver & Black. And with Amy Pascal recently claiming Tom Holland's Spidey will exist in both the MCU and Sony's universe, things are starting to get confusing.
And now there are more details about what is being cooked up by Sony in a new piece by THR. Apparently, the villain Venom will be facing is his arch-nemesis and fellow alien symbiote, Carnage. Believe it or not, Carnage, real name Cletus Kasady, is even more insane than Venom. That's what happens when a homicidal symbiote bonds with a psychopathic killer. Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) is on board to direct the film with an October 2018 release date already set.
Meanwhile, Pascal may not have been bullshitting when she said the Sony and Marvel universes were connected. Holland is only contractually obligated to do a couple more Spidey movies for Marvel, and the plan is to bring him in to be part of the Sony spinoffs, as well as do more for Marvel Studios. That means a deepening of the relationship between Sony and Marvel, possibly for the long haul. As long as the partnership is financially successful with Spider-Man: Homecoming, there's no reason to rock the boat. Speaking of which, the 'Homecoming' sequel may find Spidey paired up with another hero just as he is with Iron Man in the first movie. Hopefully it will be someone skewing a bit younger? Maybe a character we haven't seen debut yet?
Also in the works are Sony movies featuring villains Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter, but not in a Sinister Six movie like they tried before. If they are truly committed to fleshing out this universe first, and then adding additional franchises as needed, which is how Marvel did it in the beginning, then Sony could finally be on the right track.
