Sony Pictures is expressing interest in expanding the Spider-Man universe with spin-off films that could involve villains and Spidey’s girlfriends…
Following a tumultuous 2013 for Sony Pictures with releases like After Earth and White House Down, the production company spoke with investors this week to ensure them that the ship isn’t sinking and they have plenty of new vehicles to launch in the coming years.
There may not be a bigger basket to put all of the Sony eggs in than the Amazing Spider-Man franchise, which re-launches with the sequel to the first film on May 2, 2014.
According to Sony executives, they are currently in the planning stages of launching some spin-offs for the Spider-Man universe that could include some villain pictures as well as potential girlfriend side projects.
“We do very much have the ambition about creating a bigger universe around Spider-Man. There are a number of scripts in the works. And any character within Spider-Man’s universe is fair game for a spinoff, including villains and girlfriends.” Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Lynton said on Thursday.
The Spider-Man franchise is owned by Sony, which of course has prevented the character from appearing in any of the current Marvel slate of films running at Disney. Just last summer at San Diego Comic Con, lead actor Andrew Garfield commented how much he would like to see Spider-Man appear in the upcoming Avengers sequel, but alas as long as the two properties are owned by different movie companies it’s not likely to happen.
So instead of Spider-Man joining The Avengers, he will instead have his own universe of films much like the X-Men franchise, which is also owned by a different company that Disney (thus we won’t see Avengers vs. X-Men any time soon).
The universe of characters involving Spider-Man is very wide with a rogues gallery of villains and side stories that could all potentially be made into a film. There’s no word on actual production of these movies, but it appears Sony is ready to double down on your favorite neighborhood web slinger.
Our first suggestion — Sony should contact Ryan Kwanten and ask him to develop a Venom movie like the fantastic short film he did over the summer.
