Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tom Rothman has confirmed that the studio is planning a “fresh reboot” to the Spider-Man universe after the franchise’s string of box office disappointments, including Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter and Morbius.
On an episode of The Town podcast, Rothman was asked ,“Where are we in the Spider-Man franchise? Not the animated Spider-Verse. Is the larger Spider-Verse dead?”
“No,” replied Rothman.
“Are you going to go back to those at some point?”
“Yes,” Rothman confirmed.
“But it’ll be a fresh reboot?”
“Yes.”
“New people?”
“Yes, yes.”
For nearly a decade, Sony Pictures has attempted to build a shared cinematic universe around characters connected to Spider-Man — but without Spider-Man himself. The results have been, at best, inconsistent and, at worst, commercially and critically disastrous.
Released in 2022, Morbius was positioned as a darker, horror-tinged entry into the superhero genre, starring Jared Leto as the Spider-Man-adjacent antihero. Instead, the film was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews and lukewarm box office returns.
What followed was perhaps even more damaging: the internet turned Morbius into a meme. The viral “It’s Morbin’ Time” joke — a line never actually spoken in the film — ironically boosted awareness but not ticket sales. In a now-infamous move, Sony re-released the film in theaters after online chatter suggested renewed interest. It flopped again.
Rather than strengthening the brand, Morbius exposed a fundamental problem: audiences were not emotionally invested in Spider-Man villains without Spider-Man.
If Morbius was a stumble, Madame Web was a full-scale collapse. Marketed as an origin story for the clairvoyant Marvel character, the film starred Dakota Johnson and attempted to position itself as a female-led expansion of the Spider-Man mythos. Instead, it was met with poor reviews, viral mockery of its dialogue, and disappointing box office numbers. Critics cited tonal confusion, uneven performances, and a narrative that felt disconnected from anything resembling a larger plan.
With Kraven the Hunter, Sony attempted to pivot toward a more grounded, R-rated action tone. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the film was designed to reintroduce one of Spider-Man’s most iconic adversaries as a morally complex antihero.
But that strategy highlighted another issue: stripping villains of their villainy to make them protagonists often undercuts what made them compelling in the first place. Kraven is traditionally defined by his obsession with hunting Spider-Man — remove Spider-Man from the equation, and the character’s central motivation disappears.
The exception to the debacle that has been the extended cinematic Spider-verse has been the Venom series (Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Venom: The Last Dance) series, which despite mixed reviews, have grossed over $1.8 billion total.
Source: THR