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Can Venom Be the Hero Sony Pictures Needs?

Parents, lock up your daughters and have a conversation with your sons about responsibility. Prepare yourselves physically, emotionally and perhaps sexually that in a year’s time, the psychotic stage five-clinger featured above might become your child’s favorite superhero.

Similarly to everyone’s favorite Symbiote, Sony Pictures can’t seem to let go. Once they sold their prized web-slinger back to Marvel in 2015, Sony was left with just about everyone else in Spider-Man’s daily life, including the much beloved villain and Spider-Man nemesis Venom. After months of flirting with a solo Venom film, Sony has decided to take the plunge. Not only have they announced a Venom-centric film slated for 2018, the oh-so optimistic Sony Pictures have also declared they’re launching their own cinematic universe starring anyone and everyone they still have the rights to.

Imagine: an entire cinematic universe held together by someone who’s not even there. Whoa, trippy.

Color me hopeful, but from what’s known about the upcoming Venom film, so far, it looks promising. Instead of a typical origin story, Sony is going  for an action/horror/sci-fi beat. That definitely fits in with the horrifying monster that’s literally from another planet headlining the film. And it’s a risk, and risks in superhero films are all the rage these days. Additionally, following in the footsteps of Deadpool and Logan, Sony’s new Venom project aspires to be a hard R-rating. If all the cool kids are doing it, who’s to stop Sony from doing it too. They’re in desperate need of it. But Venom the character is menacing, ferocious, and a stone cold bad-ass. As long as Sony casts an actor capable of capturing that, then Sony might be in the superhero business again. Just make sure the doors are locked when Topher Grace comes sniffing around.

However, at the same time, it is mind boggling how Sony Pictures plans on creating this grandiose universe without the character literally holding the web together. Spider-Man can’t pop up for a hot second and punch the Black Cat in the face all while underwater. Cinematic lightening like that can’t strike twice. It begs the question: is Sony Pictures biting off

Most people who see these big budget superhero films are not die-hard comic fans. They most likely also didn’t watch the nineties Spider-Man television series like your truly, and don’t know who the Black Cat or Silver Sable are. Now, name recognition is, of course, not always necessary for a movie to become a phenomenon. Just see Guardians of the Galaxy for details. But Marvel, at the time of that film’s release, had a stellar reputation. Sony’s superhero street cred is a step above jazz club dance sequence. Their last superhero flick, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was the reason for selling Spider-Man in the first place. Perhaps moving too quickly on both the Venom movie and a universe surrounding him isn’t the wisest decision. But hey, no one’s accusing Sony Pictures of being smart.

The bottom line is, Sony Pictures has a great character on their hands. Much like said character, Sony Pictures is its own worst enemy. Well, themselves and Spider-Man. By trying to capitalize on the superhero conglomerate, they’re rushing into setting a deadline for a film that doesn’t have: a finished script; a director; actors. Sony might be setting themselves up for another failure, and that cannot happen again. If all else fails, hopefully Sony kept their receipt on the Spider-Man deal.

What do you want to see in a Venom film? Sound off in the comments or send us your thoughts on Twitter!

About the author

Ariana Zink