Had things gone differently with Sony‘s Andrew Garfield starring “The Amazing Spider-Man” franchise, the superhero landscape would look a bit different. The studio, at one time, laid out an ambitious slate that included “Sinister Six” being released this year, “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” in 2018, and a “Venom” spinoff movie coming somewhere down the line. It was part of a grand plan to release a Spider-Man movie “every year,” but the problem was in the execution. The first ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ was a box office hit, but the fanboys were critical, and the sequel did smaller numbers, and was met with even worse critical appraisals, forcing Sony to scrap their plans and team with Marvel to save the character. (The rebooted superhero, now played by Tom Holland, will make his first appearance in “Captain America: Civil War.”). But it looks like Sony is reviving some of those old ideas.
READ MORE: Sony Still Moving Ahead With Spider-Man Spinoffs
THR reports that a “Venom” movie is now back on at the studio, with Dante Harper writing the script. Way back in the day, Gary Ross and Josh Trank were attached to direct at various points, but no word yet on who will helm this incarnation. It’s easy to draw a line from the success of “Deadpool” to the revival of “Venom” (which, incidentally, the writers of the former, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, worked on in the past). Audiences are now able to embrace anti-heroic superheroes on the big screen, so why not give this character another try?
“The idea…is that you can do things with Venom that you can’t do with Spider-Man,” writer/producer Alex Kurtzman said about the character and project when he was involved, back in 2014. “Venom is the representation of every line that will get crossed… he’s a much darker character.”
The only other time we’ve seen Venom on the big screen was in Sam Raimi‘s “Spider-Man 3,” played by Topher Grace, so there’s room for improvement. Let’s hope Sony just doesn’t blindly follow the “Deadpool” path and finds their own voice. And note, this movie will apparently not connect to the standalone Spider-Man movie that’s in the works, with studio hoping it will be a franchise all its own. Comics fans, sound off below.