The Spider-verse is about to get deadlier.
Carnage, a serial killer with a powerful alien symbiote, is finally making his way to the big screen in the upcoming Venom movie, which will be directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and star Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road) as the supervillain Venom. Hollywood Reporter broke the news earlier today.
The Sony Pictures film will be an “adjunct” to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, according to producer Amy Pascal, which seems to mean that the film will technically be connected to the MCU but not necessarily impact the events and characters of Marvel Studios films.
Venom is just one of the movie that Sony Pictures is developing to take advantage of their new deal with Marvel Studios. Sony has the rights to all the characters in the so-called “Spider-verse,” consisting of the superhero Spider-Man and all of his supporting characters and villains. They currently have an agreement with Marvel to allow Spider-Man to take part in the interconnected MCU, while giving Sony the freedom to develop their own films based on the ancillary characters.
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Sony Pictures
Also: The 62 Marvel Superhero Movies: Ranked From Worst to Best
In addition to Venom and the previously announced team-up Silver & Black, featuring Silver Sable and Black Cat and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Beyond the Lights), Hollywood Reporter has announced that the studio also has plans to develop films featuring the supervillains Kraven the Hunter and Mysterio.
Spider-Man: Homecoming arrives in theaters on July 7, 2017. The new film co-stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, but in one last piece of news, Hollywood Reporter has also revealed that the sequel to Homecoming will co-star another Marvel superhero, whose identity has yet to be revealed.
Eight Iconic Superhero Fights You Will Never See in a Movie:
Top Photo: Marvel Comics
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Eight Iconic Superhero Fights You Will Never See in a Movie
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Avengers vs. X-Men
Marvel's biggest superhero teams came to blows in the epic, multi-series crossover Avengers vs. X-Men (a.k.a. AvX) in 2012, but the two franchises are owned by different studios - Avengers at Disney, X-Men at Fox - and it's unlike they will ever want to share the profits on what could be the biggest movie ever produced.
Photo: Marvel
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Batman vs. Guy Gardner
Warner Bros. owns the rights to both Batman and Guy Gardner, Earth's jerkiest Green Lantern, but the odds that they'll actually put Gardner in a movie - especially when Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner are more popular - are pretty slim. So the iconic fight in which Batman took Guy out in a single punch will, sadly, probably never make it in front of the cameras.
Photo: DC
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Daredevil vs. Sub-Mariner
In one of the great early Marvel superhero fights, Sub-Mariner emerged from Atlantis to destroy humanity, and only Daredevil was around to stop him. Outmatched in every way, Daredevil fought until he collapsed. Sub-Mariner respected his fearlessness so much he figured humanity was worth sparing. Both characters are owned by Marvel, but the studio is still trying to get the rights to Sub-Mariner sorted out after the character was originally optioned by Universal.
Photo: Marvel
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The Hulk vs. The Thing
The strongest, most misunderstood monsters in the Marvel Universe have a long and storied history of beating the crap out of each other. Who is strongest? Who is toughest? We may never know in live-action, since Fox owns the rights to Fantastic Four and Marvel's got The Hulk under their own banner.
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Marvel vs. DC
It took decades for Marvel and DC to set aside their differences long enough for a comic book crossover between their competing superhero universes, and it will probably be at least that long before Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. seriously consider letting Batman fight Captain America, Superman fight Thor, and so on and so forth.
Photo: Marvel and DC
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Superboy vs. Superboy Prime
The teenaged clone of Superman and Lex Luthor repeatedly fought an alternate reality Superboy who was a dangerously insane mass murderer. Yeah, even though Warner Bros. obviously owns both Superboy and Superboy Prime, the odds that we'll ever see their weird, epic, head-exploding battle on the big screen are extremely low.
Photo: DC
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Superman vs. Muhammad Ali
Aliens have challenged Earth's mightiest champion, but when Superman steps forward, the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali points out that he's not really from Earth. So they fight to prove who is truly the greatest, and sure enough, Muhammad Ali kicks Superman's ass (in all fairness, the hero's powers were deactivated, and he put up a good fight). But it seems highly unlikely that Warner Bros. will decide to send Superman back in time to fight Ali in his prime, doesn't it?
Photo: DC
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Wolverine vs. Anyone Cool
In the Marvel Comics, fighting Wolverine is like a rite of passage. He's had iconic tussles with The Hulk, Captain America and Spider-Man, and was thrown head-to-head against any rookie hero that the publisher wanted to prove was a badass. But Wolverine is owned by Fox, who only have the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. We will probably never see Wolverine fight an Avenger in a live-action movie, and that sucks.
Photo: Marvel