Sony Pictures CEO blindly defends the ill-fated Spider-Man spin-offs.

We all knew the day would come, and it finally took place in early December 2024. Sony's Spider-Man Universe is officially dead, and any projects that were still in pre-production such as El Muerto and Jackpot were canceled. Now, Sony aims to rethink their strategy moving forward, reboot their universe, and use all of their resources to ensure Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse and the untitled Spider-Man 4 can be the very best they can (even if that means a delay is on the table for Tom Holland's next movie).

Now, you'd think this is the perfect opportunity to really dive into the many reasons the SSU failed to kick off in order to ensure those mistakes are never repeated again. First and foremost; the very concept of making complete movies about Spider-Man villains and never letting them face the wall-crawler is flawed, to say the least. Furthermore, we all know the scripts haven't been worthy of an Academy Award. Dialogs such as "My grandma died shortly after that trip, and I never saw her again" were hilarious for all the wrong reasons, and the CGI could feel heavily underdeveloped. The list of flaws could go on and on, but it appears a Sony CEO refuses to see them and, instead, blames the press for the failure of the movies.

Sony Pictures CEO blames the press for the failure of the SSU

Tony Vinciquerra, the current CEO of Sony Pictures, will be stepping off the role on Jan. 2, 2025. Los Angeles Times had the opportunity to talk to him before his last day in the position, and he reflected on the ill-fated SSU. Tony mentioned Kraven the Hunter has been the worst launch he's had in seven and a half years — a flop he doesn't understand because he states "It's not a bad movie". He then proceeded to state a great part of the failure behind recent Spider-Man spin-offs was because the press (for some reason) didn't want them making those films:

"Madame Web underperformed in the theaters because the press just crucified it. It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix. For some reason, the press decided that they didn’t want us making these films out of Kraven and Madame Web, and the critics just destroyed them. They also did it with Venom, but the audience loved Venom and made Venom a massive hit. These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason (...) If we put another one out, it’s going to get destroyed, no matter how good or bad it is."

Ugh, where do we begin? First, it's worth remembering this is Sony's second failed attempt at launching a cinematographic universe based around Spider-Man characters. The third time could prove to be the charm, but only if the studio truly learns from its mistakes — something that didn't happen before their second attempt and, by the looks of it, won't happen before the third. You can't simply blame the press and turn a blind eye to all the mediocrity that plagues your movies. Spider-Man is as beloved as any character could get, with thousands of dedicated fans around the world. They will know when you do a Spidey product just for the sake of earning money as opposed to trying to tell a good stand-alone story, which has been the case since 2018.

Venom worked just because he's one of Spidey's most beloved villains in comic book pages and because he's already been the star of stand-alone comic sagas. We all know the character can be the protagonist of fantastic stories where Spidey isn't present. But for the rest of the villains? Kraven's most beloved comic saga sees him trying to best the wall-crawler at what the hero does. Madame Web is at the center of the Web of Life and Destiny — a multiversal construct that unites many different Spider-Men. And Morbius? Well, he was just a poor character choice to make a stand-alone movie about. But the point is: You can't pretend to take Peter Parker out of the stories of these characters and expect them to work. They were created to battle or aid Spider-Man. Not to have a one-and-a-half-hour origin story on the big screen without the wall-crawler.

If Sony keeps pretending the one and only reason the SSU failed is because of critics' response, then the future is very grim for the Spider-Man IP. Besides, it indicates they don't even understand these characters to begin with. They spend so much time setting themselves up for bigger things that they forget to make something memorable from the get-go. The perfect example is making a complete origin story for Kraven the Hunter (where he's an anti-hero instead of a villain, mind you) with the hopes of one day doing an adaptation of Kraven's Last Hunt. I mean, why wouldn't you do the adaptation of one of Spider-Man's most beloved storylines from the beginning? Why leave all the good things for later, and settle for mediocrity now? Even Knull's introduction in Venom's final movie proves the studio is more focused on world-building than crafting good stories.

Fingers crossed that the upcoming CEO, Ravi Ahuja, is able to look into the problem more in-depth and do something special with any upcoming movies. Otherwise, five years will go by and we'll get the news that their universe is resetting once again.