“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is off and running with a hefty global box office opening of $932 million, which means Sony Pictures (the distributor, co-producer, and financier that ultimately collects that cash) will want more installments, since they like money, right? As far as we know, there isn’t a deal or greenlight currently in place for Tom Holland (who could want to sign off on a script before returning) to come back for “Spider-Man 5,” but Tom Rothman (who runs the film studio at the company) says he’s hopeful that will eventually come together down the line. However, don’t expect any other off-shoot Marvel films at Sony anytime soon; there “are none in active development.”
There was a question Variety from a new interview with the studio head about the idea of Sony being willing to let Spider-Man go (might be steeming from some really bad-faith online rumors about Disney trying to buy the film rights back, never going to happen), and as you’d imagine, Rothman goes in a sarcastic direction in his response, but is very open to the idea of Holland coming back for another film, even if nothing is set in stone.
“I love these questions. It’s like when a coach wins the Super Bowl, and he goes to the press conference, and they say to him, ‘Are you going to win it next year?’ The honest truth is we don’t know at this point. This has been the focus of our studio for almost two years. I can tell you this: I certainly, certainly hope. I heard Tom say at some point that he wanted to continue, and we would love it if he did.”
When directly asked if Rothman could envision “Spider-Man 5” with Holland back in the mask, he said, “Yes.” A good sign that they might be able to secure both the actor and busy director Destin Daniel Cretton back for one more film. We suspect they’ll try to lock them in for two more films to round out a new trilogy before Miles Morales takes the mantle.
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“Superhero movies have to feel fresh. The glut of all those movies has made it even more important that they separate themselves in terms of quality. If you’re just taking the obligatory steps, the audience is less excited. You have to work against predictability. How do you make movies not feel repetitive? ‘Brand New Day’ is emotionally led, so it feels different,” Rothman quipped about the reason for the latest sequel’s success and connection with audiences.
“Ultimately, the audience wasn’t satisfied enough with them. Whether that’s a fair assessment of those movies, who knows. That’s howling into the wind. The audience is the boss, and they didn’t respond. It’s as simple as that….Right now, we don’t know. We never looked at it as the ‘Sony-Marvel Universe.’ We looked at if there were worthwhile movies to make with other characters. At the moment, there are none in active development.”
While Tom Hardy’s trilogy of “Venom” movies had some moderate success. The first installment made a decent $856 million with diminishing returns, after deceptive marketing about a Holland crossover that never really happened (although Holland said they were trying to get that going). When it comes to “Morbius,” “Madame Web,” and “Kraven The Hunter,” those releases ended up becoming social media punchlines rather than memorable superhero landmarks. So, we really can’t blame them for focusing on protecting the Spidey branding moving forward.
