Marvel's Kevin Feige has confirmed Spider-Man will not appear in Sony's upcoming Venom movie. After five feature films made entirely under the auspices of Sony, NYC's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man seemed like he was desperately in need of a course correction. Sam Raimi's notorious Spider-Man 3 was enough to kill that particular series, and 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man turned off many by retelling the character's origin story a mere decade after it had last been portrayed on-screen. The overwhelmingly negative reaction to 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 sealed the deal, with Spidey looking primed for yet another reboot.
Thankfully, this reboot came along with something fans had been demanding for years: Spider-Man would now be joining the MCU. The web slinger - now played by Tom Holland - arrived in truly grand fashion, often stealing the show during his scenes in last year's blockbuster Captain America: Civil War. With his introduction out of the way, Spider-Man's debut MCU solo film is set to hit theaters next week, and the anticipation is off the charts. That all said, one can't forget that Sony still very much holds sway over the Spider-Man universe when it comes to films.
This was evidenced by the announcement a few weeks back that the studio was working on a Venom solo movie, starring Tom Hardy as one of Spider-Man's most well-known villains. While it was quickly made clear that Sony's Venom wouldn't be a part of MCU continuity, that didn't stop fans from wondering whether Spider-Man would still appear in some fashion. Sadly, Variety reports that when Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was asked about that prospect at last night's Spider-Man: Homecoming premiere, he replied with a simple and to the point answer.
“No,” Feige promptly responded when asked if Spider-Man will appear in “Venom.”
He continued, “No, I think the folks there are making a great ‘Venom’ movie and I don’t know much about it, but I know they’re off to a good start with Tom Hardy.”
While Feige's confirmation that Spider-Man won't appear in Venom's solo outing isn't that surprising - after all, an MCU Spider-Man and non-MCU Spider-Man running around in cinemas at the same time would just confuse fans - it still makes one wonder how exactly Sony's film will handle Venom's origins. To say that Spider-Man is a vital element to most Venom origin tales would be a vast understatement, and the idea of Venom existing in a world without his arch-nemesis just seems odd.
From a fan's perspective, the best solution to all of this potential continuity confusion would of course be for Sony to simply quit trying to control things, and let the entire Spider-Man character line-up be absorbed into the MCU. It's not like they'd lose money on the deal, as it was reported that Sony will get to keep all the profits from Homecoming. Unfortunately, Sony seems highly unlikely to ever do that, so it would appear that Spider-fans are forever cursed to deal with a fractured movie world.
MORE: Should Sony's Spider-Verse Join The MCU?
Source: Variety
