Key Takeaways
- Sony is not handling beloved comic book characters well.
- MCU’s eagerness for Venom’s inclusion underlines Sony’s reluctance.
- Kraven could change Sony’s disjointed movie strategy, or it could prove its motive.
While the MCU is preparing to enter its next phase in earnest, one thing is holding it back from being truly great. At least most people who pay attention to comic book movies think it’s holding Kevin Feige and company back from doing everything they could do with the Marvel license. The question is whether the Sony Cinematic Universe is intentionally holding back the MCU or if it’s just an unhappy accident. In other words, is Sony trying to make good movies and just failing badly, or is the intention to sully the good names of characters like Morbius to poison the well?
With Venom: The Last Dance officially out in theaters and struggling financially and struggling critically quite definitely, the question seems like a good one. After all, why would Sony go to the trouble of making a trilogy with an actor who is as renowned as Tom Hardy, but not work to make sure the films are … good? It’s one thing for one of the three to be seen as sub par. It’s another for all of them to be seen as little more than a cash grab. And cash grabs that aren’t all that lucrative to boot.
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Sony Is Not A Good Steward Of Some Very Good Characters
It’s never a good sign that legitimate questions over the motives of a company the size of Sony exist. It’s also never a good sign when a company rolls out one critical failure after another but doesn’t seem to be changing its strategy. That might be the biggest clue of them all. It’s not just the Venom trilogy that points to something odd happening here. Mobius was even worse at the box office. And it was much, much worse when it came to reviews. And yet, Sony mistook a meme making fun of just how bad the flick was for popularity.
It’s still utterly amazing that “it’s Morbin’ time” became so popular on Twitter that Sony believed people were so excited to see Morbius again that it re-released the bomb back into the box offices. That certainly seems to be a clue that the point of Sony’s Cinematic Universe is all about making as much money as possible. But that doesn’t have to be its only motivation. Knowing that every time it releases a movie like Venom: The Last Dance, or Morbius, or Kraven, or Madame Web, it holds the license for just a bit longer has been a thorn in the side of the MCU for years.
The MCU Would Love A Crack At Venom Especially
With the renewed popularity of Spider-Man thanks to Tom Holland, there is very little doubt that Kevin Feige and his crew would love to bring the Venom symbiote into the MCU. So far, there’s been a lot of talk about such an event with absolutely no payoff. With each film subtly hinting that the next installment might be the one where it happens, excitement is only growing, overseeing the deed gets done.
And then, there’s no payoff because Sony is holding off on allowing such a merger. While money is undoubtedly one driving force there, it sure feels like spite is the biggest. Despite these massive corporations, there are also men and women with big egos in charge. Those men and women at Sony see the success Marvel has had with its own cinematic universe and aren’t happy the Sonyverse can’t have the same level. The bonus of not allowing Marvel the chance to use someone like Venom is that fans of the MCU may not all understand why Feige and his gang can’t just figure out a way to make it work. So, while Sony gets most of the blame, there’s a spillover.
Kraven Could Be The Answer
It’s unclear what Sony’s plans are after Kraven: The Hunter. Will the company just keep rolling out subpar films in order to try and get just a little piece of the superhero movie pot? Will they keep rolling out more movies just to make sure that some of the most popular Spider-Villains can’t come over to the MCU?
At the moment, there isn’t another movie officially in the works. That despite all kinds of talk that Knull, the big bad, introduced in Venom: The Last Dance will make another appearance somewhere. Is that a hint that Sony will finally wave the white flag and allow the MCU to take over? Or will it continue to be a thorn in the side. It’s future plans and the way it carries them out is going to be a massive signal to the movie-going public on why it is carrying out those plans. But it sure feels like, at the moment, quite a bit of the driving force behind these films is all about hurting Marvel more than helping Sony.
MCU
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a sprawling movie and television franchise that weaves together individual stories of superheroes including Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and many more. The first film in the franchise, Iron Man, was released in 2008. The MCU has garnered critical praise and financial success, earning billions at the box office and becoming a cultural phenomenon.
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