Sony to Expand Spider-Man‘s Universe to TV
Sony has a hot hand with Spider-Man at the moment. The first and most obvious example is their Oscar-winning, game-changing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Then there was the box office smash hit Venom, based on the titular antihero and sometime antagonist of Spider-Man. Then there’s Sony’s flagship Spider-Man film series starring Tom Holland, with Far From Home bowing this July 5. All this quality Spidey-related content has led to Sony to the understandable decision to think about expanding the web-slinger’s presence—which means teleivison.
Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tony Vinciquerra and Mike Hopkins, head of TV operations, spoke with Variety‘s Elaine Low about their plans for the future. They are currently looking at how to make the most of their intellectual property across film and TV. The most profitable IP Sony has is, of course, Spider-Man.
“We have the next seven or eight years laid out as to what we’re going to do with that asset, and that will not only be on the film side — it’ll be on the TV side,” Vinciquerra told Variety. “Our television group will have its own set of characters from within that universe that we will seek to develop.”
Those characters Vinciquerra speaks of? There are more than 900 of them. These are all the superheroes, supervillains, and ancillary folks in the Spider-Man universe. Think Mary Jane. Think Doc Oc. Think Miles Morales. Think Spider-Man Noir.
Hopkins told Variety that the studio has worked through the list and thinks they have a good idea on which characters could lead their own series.
“We’re developing a lot of Marvel-related content, and I think we’ll be out in the market very soon with something really, really big and transformational for us, because we’ve not done any shows with Marvel before, with Marvel IP,” Hopkins told Variety. “So that’s a big piece of development that we’re onto.”
Into the Spider-Verse fans (and we are legion) would be thrilled with a series based on Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen or any of the fantastic characters in that film. Especially if it looked anything like it did on the big screen. Who knows which characters and in what direction Sony will go, but the idea of a Spider-Man series, in any iteration, has a ton of potential.
Featured image: Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.
