With the live-action “Venom” run now finished and Sony’s other Spider-Man villain spin-offs crashing and burning one after another, the studio is clearly done pretending that lane works—and it’s pivoting to a new plan. According to THR, Sony Pictures Animation is developing an animated “Venom” feature, with filmmakers Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein—fresh off “Final Destination: Bloodlines”—attached to direct and produce the project.
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According to the report, Sony is opening a writers’ room to develop the script, and no writer has been set. Additionally, Tom Hardy—the face of the three live-action “Venom” films as Eddie Brock—is involved “in some capacity,” though what that actually means is not yet clear. Voice? Producer? A handshake-and-blessing credit? The ambiguity is the point right now: Sony is keeping options open while it builds the animated take from the ground up.
The move reads like a calculated pivot because—outside of the Marvel-produced “Spider-Man” films, and to a lesser extent the live-action “Venom” features (janky, but occasionally entertaining)—the only corner of Sony’s Spider-verse that has consistently worked is its animated Spider-Man movies.
It also doubles as a strategy reset. “Venom” was Sony’s only standout success, at least financially. The studio’s other attempts, like “Morbius” and “Madame Web,” were panned by critics and audiences. If you’re Sony, you don’t need to pretend you didn’t notice that pattern—you need to keep the one brand that reliably performed and reposition it into a lane with fewer constraints and a cleaner runway.
There are also familiar hands hovering around the animated version. Producers Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are expected to produce, carrying over their involvement from the live-action films. That signals continuity on the business side, even if the creative approach is being rebuilt.
For Lipovsky and Stein, the attachment suggests Sony is looking for filmmakers comfortable with franchise mechanics and genre propulsion. Still, the more important detail is the development posture: a writer’s room, no writer yet, and a star’s involvement defined only in the vaguest terms. This is early.
Still, it’s a telling direction. If Sony wants Venom to stay valuable, animation may be the easiest way to keep the character alive without re-litigating the same live-action formula—or tying itself to a single continuity that has already run its course.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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