Could Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Experiment Ever Have Worked?

Word on the street is that the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe franchise is over, following Kraven the Hunter‘s disastrous opening weekend. For many commentators and fans, this announcement was a long time coming – but was the SSU’s demise really that inevitable?

On the face of it, yes. After all, the SSU was an inherently risky experiment. Creating a cinematic universe around Spider-Man’s supporting cast of heroes and villains, but without Spidey himself (who’s effectively “on loan” to Marvel Studios), is a bit like building a car without an engine. Even if you figure out a way to get it running, it’s never going to perform as well as it should.

Yet Sony’s Spider-Man Universe got enough right to last six years; that’s longer than, say, Universal’s Dark Universe (which didn’t make it past a single movie!). As such, the question of whether the SSU’s ignominious end was unavoidable seems less cut and dried. With that in mind, let’s consider the aspects of the SSU worked, those that didn’t, and whether the latter was always going to win out over the former.

Parts of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe DID Work (Kinda)

When I say “parts” of the SSU worked, I’m really referring to one specific sub-franchise. The three Venom movies made decent money at the box office and have their passionate admirers (try knocking the trilogy on social media and see what you get back). Were they critical successes? Not really. Leading man Tom Hardy’s gonzo performance as both Eddie Brock and Venom earned some positive mentions, but reviews for Venom and its sequels were mixed to negative overall. Their earnings decreased film to film, too. Still, they made Sony a tidy profit and proved that Spider-Man films sans Spider-Man were a viable commercial venture. Unfortunately, everything else in the SSU bombed, critically and commercially.

Related: Venom: The Last Dance Reveals Its Symbiote Identities

Morbius was one of the most lampooned releases of 2022, and generated far more memes – including a catchphrase that doesn’t even appear in the movie itself – than ticket sales (despite getting two theatrical runs). 2024’s Madame Web found itself tangled up in similarly unfortunate circumstances. The Dakota Johnson vehicle’s trailer generated buzz; however, it was largely related to how bad the movie looked (who could forget that line about researching spiders in the Amazon?). As with Morbius, folks were happy joking about Madame Web, but were less interested in handing over cash to see it. Meanwhile, Kraven the Hunter didn’t even warrant mockery ahead of its dismal $11 million opening – the lowest ever in SSU history.

Why Didn’t the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Movies Work?

So, where did it all go wrong for the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movies? The obvious answer is they simply weren’t very good superhero movies – even the hits, like Venom and its follow-ups – at a time when audiences have plenty of alternatives to choose from. In fairness to the cast and crew involved, a lot goes on during the development of a big budget blockbuster that’s outside of the creative personnel’s control. And that’s under normal circumstances; there was a global pandemic and industry strikes to contend with late in the SSU’s run.

Even so, there’s no escaping the fact that the six SSU installments are plagued by shoddy storytelling, uneven visual effects, and often tepid performances. In some cases, they’re downright sloppy, such as the noticeably poor dialogue looping in Kraven the Hunter. It’s almost as if the studio expects viewers to accept an inferior product and be grateful, the way they did when superhero fare was hard to come by. Indeed, as many pundits have observed over the years, the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe outings feel like 2000s-era superhero movies (and not the good ones).

Related: A Kraven the Hunter Sequel Would Be Based on an Iconic Spider-Man Story

SSU producers Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal never settled on a consistent approach to the shared universe concept, either. Are the SSU movies set in the same universe as each other? Are they part of Marvel Studios’ rival MCU? Does Spider-Man exist in this reality (or realities, plural)? Some of these questions were answered, others weren’t, and cameos by the likes of Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s Michael Keaton (in character as the Vulture) didn’t help. Continuity isn’t everything, but when you’re establishing a multi-movie franchise, you can’t keep changing the status quo.

Yet even this wasn’t the biggest problem with Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. No, the biggest hurdle it needed to clear – but almost never did – was figuring out how to divorce its stable of characters from Spider-Man and have them remain compelling. It’s partly why the trio of Venom movies worked and everything else didn’t. Eddie Brock can function independently of Spidey; the dynamic between him and the Venom symbiote picks up the slack. But for Morbius, Kraven, and Madame Web to carry their own franchises, they needed new narrative and characterization hooks to fill the wall-crawler-shaped hole in their respective reasons for being – and these never materialized.

Could Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Have Worked?

All of the above makes Sony’s Spider-Man Universe sound unsalvageable. And honestly, that’s probably case. Sure, if Sony had corralled the various SSU entries a bit better, the franchise might’ve limped on a bit longer. If nothing else, more robust production values and slate-wide planning – along with more well-considered solutions to the “absentee Spider-Man” problem – would’ve made the SSU feel less like a second-rate Marvel Cinematic Universe. It might’ve even supplied a few more Venom-sized hits.

Related: Ranking Every Venom Movie, From Worst To Best

But at the end of the day, fans go to a Spider-Man movie expecting to see Spider-Man – or at the very least, explicit shout-outs in his direction. The SSU didn’t deliver that. It couldn’t; as I mentioned at the jump, Sony’s deal with Marvel meant that Spidey was off-limits. And without him, the SSU was always doomed to fail. But doesn’t mean it had to fail quite so badly.

The final entry in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, Kraven the Hunter, is in cinemas now.