Sony's Marvel Universe

Sony's Marvel Universe (Sony's MU) is an American shared universe centered on a series of superhero films owned and distributed by Sony Pictures, based on characters that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The universe is adjunct to the Spider-Man films co-produced with Marvel Studios, which are set in that company's Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony's MU is set to begin in 2018, with the release of Venom.
Work on an expanded universe using supporting characters from the Spider-Man films began by June 2013, with Sony planning to use The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to launch several spin-off films focused on traditional Spider-Man villains from the comics. This included a Venom film. After the relative critical and financial failure of that film, these plans were abandoned, and in February 2015, Sony announced a deal to collaborate with Marvel Studios on future Spider-Man films and integrate that character into the MCU. Venom was redeveloped as a separate standalone film, and was announced as the first film in Sony's MU in May 2017. 
Alongside Venom, Sony's MU also includes Silver & Black. Several other films are in development. The universe's films are produced by Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal, with Avi Arad also producing Venom. In June 2017, Pascal explained that though they were not working with Marvel Studios to integrate their MU with the MCU, Sony did consider the former to be adjunct to the MCU Spider-Man films, and that a crossover between the two could happen in the future.
==Development==
In January 2010, Sony announced that the Spider-Man franchise would be rebooted after director Sam Raimi decided to no longer continuing his version of the franchise. By March 2012, Sony was still interested in a developing spin-off film centered on the character Venom, looking to capitalize on the release of the first reboot film, The Amazing Spider-Man. That June, producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach discussed Venom and The Amazing Spider-Man in reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and how the different franchises set in that world crossed over in The Avengers, with Tolmach saying, "Hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday." In June 2013, Sony revealed plans to use The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to establish their own expanded universe based on the Marvel properties the studio had the film rights to, including Venom. Arad and Tolmach would produce the films as part of a franchise brain trust that also included Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Ed Solomon, and Drew Goddard, and The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb. However, after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed and with Sony "under tremendous pressure to perform [that has them taking] a hard look at their most important franchise", the direction of the new shared universe was rethought. In February 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios announced a new partnership that would see the latter produce the next Spider-Man film for Sony, and integrate the character into their MCU. Sony still planned to produce the spin-off films without Marvel's involvement. By November, the spin-off films were believed to have been "scrapped", with Sony instead focusing on its new reboot with Marvel.
Venom was revived by Sony in March 2016, envisioned as a standalone film unrelated from Sony and Marvel's new Spider-Man films, which would launch its own franchise and shared universe. In May 2017, Sony announced that Venom was not considered a spin-off of any other film, and would officially begin "Sony's Marvel Universe". . The next month, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that because the film was solely a Sony project, Marvel had no plans to crossover Venom with the MCU. However, producer Amy Pascal soon clarified that Sony intended to have their new Marvel-based films take place in "the same world" as Spider-Man: Homecoming, the first Spider-Man film set in the MCU, describing them as "adjunct" to that world. She said that Venom would have connections with the next film in Sony's MU, Silver & Black, and that there was potential for Tom Holland's Spider-Man to crossover from the MCU films to the Sony MU films. Holland was not contracted to appear outside of a trilogy of Spider-Man films and several other MCU films, but Sony intended to have the actor appear in their other MU films eventually. With their new universe, Sony was looking to build out the concept gradually rather than rush in as they had previously tried with the Amazing Spider-Man spin-offs. In July, Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch explained that they were looking to "do what’s the absolute best for each individual property. I just want to honor the original DNA." Because of this, Sony was hoping that individual filmmakers would give each film its own distinct style rather than having a single person in charge of the universe as with Feige for the MCU. The studio also wanted to avoid "producing just conventional comic-book movies", with the intention of dealing in different genres such as horror or comedy, potential R-ratings, and even lower-than-usual budgets, depending on each project.
==Films==
Film 	U.S. release date	Director(s) 	Screenwriter(s) 	Producer(s) 	Status
Venom 	 	Ruben Fleischer 	Scott Rosenberg & Jeff Pinkner	Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal	Pre-production
Silver & Black	 	Gina Prince-Bythewood	Chris Yost 	Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal 	Pre-production
===Venom (2018)===
The long-in-development Venom film was revived by Sony in March 2016. A year later, Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner were writing the screenplay. In May 2017, Sony announced that Tom Hardy would star as Eddie Brock / Venom in Venom, to be directed by Ruben Fleischer. It is set for release on October 5, 2018.
===Silver & Black===
Sony had made several attempts at producing a female superhero spin-off from the Spider-Man franchise before March 2017, when the company was believed to be "fast at work" on such a project. Chris Yost was writing a script for the film, featuring the characters Silver Sable and Black Cat. That May, Sony officially titled the film Silver & Black, and Gina Prince-Bythewood signed on to direct.
===Potential projects===
Sony is considering films centered on the characters Kraven the Hunter and Mysterio.
==Cast and characters==
Character 	Venom(2018)	Silver & Black
Eddie BrockVenom	Tom Hardy 	 
==References==