One of the biggest red flags of Ruben Fleischer's upcoming Venom movie is that seems obsessed with shared universes - either establishing Sony's own Spider-adjacent universe, or connecting itself to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite having conquered the biggest hurdle in developing a solo movie for the Lethal Protector (by creating an origin story that doesn't depend on the existence of Spider-Man) the movie seems unable to stand on its own as an independent entity.
There is some poetry in a film about two emotionally-broken characters (reporter Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote) becoming something stronger by bonding together suffering from codependency. That seems to be the case with Venom, which Sony originally developed as the base for establishing their own cinematic superhero universe to compete with Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios. Most of Sony's proposed comic book movies for the next few years centered around anti-heroes and villains affiliated with Spider-Man whom Marvel was unlikely to want for the MCU, and Venom was meant to be a test of how successful such movies might be.
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Now, however, Sony appears to be trying to have it both ways. While Venom was originally conceived as its own thing, the deal between Sony and Marvel Studios that allowed Spider-Man to be introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War and the runaway success that followed seems to have made Sony more open to cooperation. This has led to conflicting reports that Venom isn't set in the MCU or that (much like the Marvel TV series produced by Netflix) it is set in the same universe, but you shouldn't expect to see Captain America and Daredevil teaming up anytime soon. This throws the status of all the movies that were meant to follow Venom into question, for a number of reasons.
- This Page: Venom Is Trying To Force A Shared Universe
- Page 2: How Venom Can Get Around Its Shared Universe Problems
Venom Is Trying To Force A Shared Universe
The confusion over whether or not Venom is or isn't set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is something of a problem for Sony's proposed superhero cinematic universe. With Venom acting as the tentpole for a new franchise and the acid test for whether a movie centering around an independent anti-hero can be a success in the current market, a lot is riding on this movie's potential success. That success could be diluted, or the results of this great experiment muddied, if Venom were to be officially established as an MCU movie.
Currently, the only other comic book movie Sony is moving forward in developing with any force is Morbius: The Living Vampire, which has cast Jared Leto in the lead role of a scientist who transforms himself into a bat-like monster through experiments to cure his blood disease. At one time the studio had been working on Silver and Black - a heist film starring the cat-burglar anti-heroine Black Cat and the mercenary-with-a-code Silver Sable. That plan has been abandoned, however, and Sony is apparently now considering solo films for both characters, along with movies based on the characters of Jackpot, Silk and Nightwatch. Sony has also solicited scripts for solo movies for the Spider-Man villains Kraven the Hunter and Mysterio, though this last one has likely been abandoned as Mysterio is rumored to be the main villain of Spider-Man: Far From Home.
While all of these characters first appeared in the Spider-Man comic books, none of them are as wholly dependent upon an association with the wall-crawler to the same degree as Venom. It would be a simple matter, for instance, to develop a movie based around Kraven The Hunter as the host of a Man Vs. Wild style reality show, who finds his skills tested as never before exploring The Savage Land. Given her background as a Nazi-hunter, a Silver Sable solo movie could prove quite timely, and an action-franchise built around a woman who leads her own team of professional mercenaries would appeal to a wide variety of audiences, amid the push for more superhero movies based around female protagonists. Unfortunately, any future films along these lines at Sony seem wholly dependent on Venom becoming a successful solo act.
Page 2: How Venom Can Get Around Its Shared Universe Problems
Venom Is Trying To Be A Backdoor MCU Film
Unfortunately, there are numerous signs that Venom is trying to attach itself to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if only by proxy. Chief among these is a push by the studio brass at Sony for Venom to be edited so that it can secure a PG-13 rating. This edict comes in spite of earlier reports that the film had originally been meant to follow in the footsteps of comic book movies aimed at older audiences, such as Deadpool and Logan, and offer a more violent work closer in theme and tone to a horror film than a standard superhero movie. While it's common for studios to aim for PG-13 in order to attain a four-quadrant audience, the aforementioned R-rated comic book movies were both box office hits, proving that superhero movies don't need to be child-friendly to succeed. It seems odd, then, that Sony is trying to tone down Venom - unless they are hopeful that there's a chance of the character being incorporated into the MCU.
This course of action could backfire on Sony for several reasons. First of all, it risks alienating those fans of the original Venom comics (which were always more violent than the standard Spider-Man books) who were hoping to see the symbiote in all its terrifying glory. While it might be possible to depict a comic-accurate Venom within the bounds of a PG-13 movie, it's surely going to feel a little watered-down - especially given Venom's graphic threats of ripping off someone's limbs and turning them into a "turd in the wind." Most Venom fans would prefer that Sony go big or go home, so to speak.
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Another problem is that mimicking the Marvel Studios aesthetic would be antithetical to what we have seen of Venom so far. The earlier trailers suggested that Venom would play up the body-horror aspects of the character, with Eddie Brock losing control of his life and his own body as he is taken over by an alien entity. This is a far cry from the more light-hearted Marvel Studios movies, which even at their darkest seem to emphasize the positive aspects of having superpowers and being a hero. Even the tagline - "The World Has Enough Superheroes" - seems to point to Venom trying to set itself apart from that sense of idealism, and present something unique.
This raises yet another issue: what is the point of Sony trying to establish a new superheroncinematic universe if it's going to mimic the MCU, rather than carving out its own identity? There is a demand for more mature superhero fair, as Logan and Deadpool have already proven, and it seems misguided for Sony to throw away one of the key ways in which Venom could distinguish itself from the other genre fare on offer.
How Venom Can Get Around Its Shared Universe Problems
The key to Venom's success may lie in it mimicking its title character and trying to be its own beast - set apart from the other superheroes of Marvel Comics while still inhabiting their space. In this Venom inhabits a similar position to the Atlantean king Namor - playing the hero or villain as the story demands, while adhering to his own sense of rough justice and holding grudges against heroes and villains alike. Accurately portraying that idea alone would set Venom apart in the MCU, should Marvel Studios decide to make the implied link official.
This could set the tone for the other superhero movies Sony has in development, with the connections between the movies being minor things building to something bigger in time. In this, Sony could mirror the steps taken by Marvel Studios to make the first Avengers movie or the Marvel Netflix series building up towards Defenders rather than putting the cart before the horse by trying to put all the pressure of building the universe on a single film. In either case, it would be best if Venom were treated as a movie on its own terms, rather than as the start of something greater or a part of a greater whole.
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