In 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios struck an unprecedented deal that allowed Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe while Sony retained the film rights to build a separate slate around the wider Spider-Man mythology. That arrangement gave rise to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, a shared continuity that launched with Venom in 2018 before expanding into Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, and Madame Web. Venom proved to be a genuine commercial success, grossing enough worldwide to justify two sequels and convince Sony to widen its ambitions beyond Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his symbiote. However, each subsequent entry in the franchise performed progressively worse at the box office, and the losses eventually became severe enough that Sony shut the endeavor down entirely, pivoting toward a fresh reboot. Before that collapse, Sony reportedly harbored much bigger plans for how this universe would intersect with Holland’s corner of the MCU.
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“[Tom] Rothman is a really smart guy, and I think that he was building this universe and they had this plan to kind of merge the world at some point,” Holland said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, referring to Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chairman and CEO Tom Rothman, the man responsible for steering the SUU. “I think that they just never found the right time to do so. I think it was on the cards. But there were never any battles like, ‘We want you to be in this movie,’ and I don’t want to be in this movie. That never happened.” The star of Spider-Man: Brand New Dayalso added that “I think that was the idea, that one day this would happen. And like lots of things in the creative world, it just never came to fruition,” he added.
There Were Signs for an MCU and SUU Merger
The idea of a merger was planted by Sony across the SSU’s run. For starters, Venom: Let There Be Carnage closed with Eddie catching a news report about Holland’s Spider-Man on television, immediately drawing Venom’s interest before the character was pulled into the MCU. Then, the botched multiversal spell of Spider-Man: No Way Homedragged Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his symbiote into Earth-616, setting up his own mid-credits cameo in a Mexican bar. Finally, Vulture (Michael Keaton) appeared in Morbius‘ post-credits scene, where he immediately name-dropped Spider-Man. Sony ultimately walked back on the merge in Venom: The Last Dance, with the movies reopening with the same bar scene from No Way Home, with changed dialogue and the erasure of any multiversal jump. No follow-up project ever addressed the change, and the connective tissue between the two franchises was quietly erased, most likely due to the numerous box office failures of the SUU.
However, Sony still has a second, far more successful universe that could eventually plug into Holland’s world. The Spider-Verse animated trilogy wraps up next year with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has already confirmed that a live-<a href="https://comicvibe.com/inart-dawnbreaker-action-figure-dark-nights-metal-pre/” title=”INART Dawnbreaker Action Figure: Dark Nights Metal Pre”>action version of Miles Morales is part of the studio’s long-term plans once that animated story concludes. The timing lines up closely with Avengers: Secret Wars, arriving in theaters roughly six months later, which promises to soft reboot the MCU. Marvel Studios has the opportunity to mirror the 2015 Secret Wars comic book, which folded Miles into the main Marvel Universe after years spent in a separate continuity. Unlike the failed live-action merger between the SSU and the MCU, this path offers Sony a surer path to deepen their relationship with the MCU.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 31, 2026.
Do you think Sony and Marvel should have found a way to merge Venom and Morbius into the MCU sooner? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in theComicBook Forum!
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Movies Ranked, Worst To Best
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