What’s happening in the world of “Spider-Man” and the entire Spiderverse from Sony? Well, right now, a lot of delays. This weekend, Sony announced several changes in their upcoming Spiderverse schedule, which means all of their films are getting pushed back. The spin-off movie “Kraven the Hunter” film— starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as one of Spidey’s adversaries—has been delayed from January 13, 2023 release, to October 6, later that year.
That pushes the female-lead “Madame Web” team-up Spider-Man spin-off. Initially scheduled for that slot, October 6, “Madame Web” will now debut on February 16, 2024. Lastly, an untitled Marvel movie from Sony was pushed up from July 12, 2024, to June 6, 2024.
What could that film be? Well, it could be a fourth ‘Spider-Man,’ film with Tom Holland and Zendaya, but since Marvel just lost that director Jon Watts (he was supposed to direct “Fantastic Four”), but more than likely it’s “Venom 3,” with Tom Hardy as that film’s script has already moved ahead.
As for that fourth ‘Spider-Man,’ movie? Well, if you’ll remember the events of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” that film ended with essentially a franchise reset, no one remembering who Peter Parker was thanks to Doctor Strange’s spell, and only leaving Earth with the recollection of Spider-Man. This means Spider-Man won’t have Avengers pals to help him and will be starting from scratch, so it likely means both Sony and Marvel—the latter of whom are the creative producers behind the series—are probably taking a beat to find a way forward.
Given the schedule now, both Marvel and Sony’s, it’s very easy to speculate that we won’t see a fourth ‘Spider-Man’ movie until 2025 at the earliest, if not the following year.
While delays aren’t great, there are silver linings. Directed by J. C. Chandor and co-starring Ariana DeBose, Russell Crowe, Christopher Abbott, Alessandro Nivola, and Fred Hechinger, “Kraven The Hunter” now actually has a fighting chance. That original January 2023 release date signaled a dumping ground release—studios dump their bad movies in January—but October (the month the “Venom” movies generally come out) is a much more promising sign. Its direct competition will be Gareth Edwards’ “True Love” and then, a few weeks later, “Blade” on November 3, 2023.
February 16, 2024, would pit “Madame Web” against the “Untitled Dirty Dancing sequel,” which is expected to land the week before. As for the mystery Marvel/Spider-Man movie now scheduled for June 6, 2024, well, that one probably shifted to get out of the way of Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” movie scheduled for July 26, 2024.
Not mentioned in any of this? Sony’s “El Muerto” Spider-Man spin-off which currently scheduled for January 12, 2024, but given these other release date moves, you should expect that one to move too. Lastly, there’s one more Sony/Spider-Man date that has held so far: “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” which is currently set for a March 29, 2024 date. Its predecessor, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” arrives June 2, 2023. Update your calendars while you can and before any changes are announced, or someone decides to make a “Morbius 2.”