The MCU Has Already Showed How Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Can Still Live On 3 Separate Times

It seems like Sony’s Spider-Man Universe will end sooner than expected, but that doesn’t mean its Marvel characters will have to sink with the ship. Due to Sony’s ownership of the cinematic rights to Spider-Man, Marvel Studios legally cannot use the wall-crawler, his allies, or his enemies in any live-action movie or show without coming to an agreement with Sony. In turn, Sony is able to have a whole franchise centered around Spider-Man characters. However, since Marvel and Sony’s MCU deal was a success, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe focused on Spidey’s villains while Tom Holland’s Peter Parker fought alongside the Avengers.

Unfortunately for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, only the Venom movie trilogy was met with a positive response at the box office. Meanwhile, Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter got increasingly worse reviews and box office results. Despite announcing projects such as El Muerto, Hypno Hustler, and Silk, Sony seems to be moving away from the original plans for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, instead shifting attention to other Marvel properties like Spider-Noir, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, and the MCU’s Spider-Man 4. The fate of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe’s characters is unknown, but there are various ways the Marvel Cinematic Universe could save them.

The MCU Can Save The SSU’s Characters Before The Multiverse Saga Ends

Avengers: Secret Wars Offers The Marvel Characters In Sony’s Spider-Man Universe A Chance To Carry On

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has reached the peak of its crisis at the same time that the final stretch of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga is picking up speed. Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are expected to culminate the Multiverse Saga with a full-scale multiversal war that involves most, if not all, Marvel properties ever made. Given that Phase 6’s Avengers movies will probably feature characters like Fox’s X-Men, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men, and other non-MCU Marvel characters, the characters from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe also have a chance to return and cross over with MCU heroes in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe already referenced the existence of the MCU Multiverse. In Morbius‘ post-credits scene, Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius runs into Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes a.k.a. the Vulture, who somehow got transported from the MCU’s Earth-616 to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe due to Spider-Man and Doctor Strange’s spell at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Spider-Man: No Way Home also brought Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock to Earth-616 for a very brief moment. Similarly, Avengers: Secret Wars could bring characters like Venom, Morbius, and Kraven to Earth-616, whether permanently or for an all-star war in the MCU’s version of Battleworld.

The SSU’s Characters Could Return Through An Incursion In Spider-Man 4

Spider-Man 4 Could Pay Off A Multiversal No Way Home Tease Involving Spidey’s Villains And Allies

The key to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe’s salvation might be hidden in plain sight in Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s ending. In Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s final battle, Doctor Strange struggles to protect Earth-616 as an incursion rips through the fabric of reality. The rift in the sky slowly opens and reveals hundreds of characters connected to Spider-Man, including Kraven the Hunter, Rhino, Scorpion, Mysterio, and a figure that appears to be either Superior Spider-Man or Doppelganger. Since Spider-Man 4 might also have a multiversal plot, a similar incursion could bring all the characters in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe into the MCU.

Kraven and Rhino’s cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s incursion rift seem oddly prescient, as the two Spider-Man villains fought each other in Kraven the Hunter. One of the other shadows in the incursion rift appears to be Madame Web, whose SSU movie was also released after Spider-Man: No Way Home. Spider-Man 4‘s potentially multiversal plot could take advantage of these characters’ cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home and feature a full-blown incursion that brings them over to Earth-616, which is what they seemed to be doing in the previous movie anyway. On that note, this event would justify Vulture’s return to his original timeline.

Marvel And Sony’s MCU Spider-Man Movies Can Soft-Reboot The SSU’s Characters

Phase 7 Could Give Spider-Man All His Friends And Foes Back After A Franchise Reboot

If the MCU’s Multiverse Saga doesn’t integrate or even acknowledge the Marvel characters from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, the MCU’s next saga could instead introduce new versions of the same characters. Of course, rebooting Spider-Man’s villains within the MCU would require Sony to give their cinematic rights back to Marvel, or at least grant Marvel permission to use them freely. This possibility would have seemed highly unlikely earlier in 2024, but after Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter‘s poor performance, it has become a reasonable scenario for Sony. After all, releasing more SSU movies might only bring Sony diminishing returns.

If Sony fully moves away from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and allows Marvel to utilize Spider-Man’s ample gallery of villains and allies, Phase 7 could be the perfect time to integrate them into the MCU. Similarly to the source material, Avengers: Secret Wars could reboot the whole Marvel multiverse, introducing a revised timeline where characters like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four always coexisted with the Avengers. Likewise, the MCU’s timeline reboot could incorporate Sony’s characters into the MCU’s past, establishing villains like Venom, Kraven, Morbius, Rhino, Carnage, and Chameleon, as longtime Spider-Man enemies, and heroes like Madame Web and Spider-Woman as longtime MCU heroes.

Why Sony’s Spider-Man Characters Deserve A Second Chance In The MCU

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Failures Aren’t Due To Its Characters

Jared Leto’s Morbius, Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter, and their respective enemies haven’t been welcomed the same way as most MCU characters. For example, Morbius’ rather disastrous release and re-release accidentally turned him into a joke character better known for the “It’s Morbin’ time” meme than his SSU story and Madame Web‘s trailers inspired several memes based on Cassandra Webb’s awkward dialog delivery. However, the original comic book characters provide enough material for serious, successful movie appearances, if not in solo movies of their own, then at least in secondary roles spread across several MCU installments.

Tom Hardy, Jared Leto, Woody Harrelson, Dakota Johnson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and many other actors in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe have showcased their impressive acting skills in dozens of movies outside the superhero genre, so the blame for the franchise’s failure cannot be placed on them. Sony’s Spider-Man Universe’s characters are also among some of the most famous Marvel villains in the comics, even standing above recently introduced MCU antagonists in terms of popularity. If the MCU could turn lesser-known villains like Iron Monger, the High Evolutionary, Killmonger, and He Who Remains into fan-favorite antagonists, then it’s not the SSU characters’ fault, either.

The MCU has already turned certain characters’ public perception around in the Multiverse Saga, and often with just one small role at a time. For example, Anson Mount’s Black Bolt didn’t escape Inhumans‘ criticism back in 2017, yet he returned in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for a brief but visually stunning role as he killed Earth-838’s Doctor Strange and was murdered by Scarlet Witch. Jamie Foxx’s Electro also had a much antagonistic role in Spider-Man: No Way Home than he did in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. With a good script, the MCU could do the same for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe‘s characters.

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