As it looks to build out its Spider-Man-based corner of Marvel movies, Sony is making some changes to its future slate. Among them, it emerges from a new Variety report, is the move to split the characters Black Cat and Silver Sable into separate adventures.
The news is perhaps not much of a surprise after word emerged in June that the planned team-up film Silver & Black had been pulled from the release schedule and sent back into development for more script work. Now it emerges that it's because there are plans to have both of them feature in their own films. "We believe Black Cat is enough of her own character with a great backstory and a canon of material to draw from to justify her own film," Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch tells the trade mag. There's also the chance that director Gina Prince-Blythewood, who had been attached to make the combined character film, may depart the project, staying on as a producer. But no decision about that has been made.
Also under discussion? Keeping Venom at a PG-13 level so that he can meet Tom Holland's Spider-Man in potential future instalments. And that's a driving feature here – Sony is open to other Spider-characters that it owns popping up in the MCU, with that naturally leading to the hope that one or two of the big Disney-owned Marvel players could return the favour.
Along with Venom (due out on 5 October), Sony has the likes of Morbius The Living Vampire, Kraven The Hunter, plus others including Silk, Jackpot and Nightwatch in development in what is known at the studio as Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, or SUMC. Yeah, it's not quite as catchy as the other acronyms, but the studio will be hoping it can grow into something big. For more on the future of the Sony plans, head to Variety.
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