Warning: this post features spoilers for ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’.

This past weekend, Sony released their latest superhero film Venom: Let There Be Carnage, a largely standalone feature that included a universe-shattering mid-credits scene that, quite frankly, overshadows both Venom films. But before we dive into that, let’s revisit Sony’s history with its Spider-Man characters in film, and their landmark deals with Marvel Studios.

For the uninitiated, Marvel Studios is the creator of the superhero films set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that started with 2008’s Iron Man to, most recently, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Since 2009, Marvel Studios has been owned by The Walt Disney Company (isn’t everything?). Before the establishment of Marvel Studios as we know it today, the company had licensed some of its major characters to other studios to produce unconnected films, which is why we saw X-Men and Fantastic Four films released under Fox and Spider-Man films under Sony. The rights to Spider-Man films and 900 other related characters have been owned by Sony since 1998, with Sony required to release a new Spider-Man film at least every five years and nine months or else they lose these rights. This is why we saw a way-too-soon reboot starring Andrew Garfield in 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man, just five years after Tobey Maguire’s final bout in Spider-Man 3.

However, with Sony seeing diminishing box office returns ($894.9 million worldwide gross for Spider-Man 3, $758 million for The Amazing Spider-Man, and $709 million for The Amazing Spider-Man 2), they decided, since they can’t compete with Marvel Studios in establishing a cinematic universe, they might as well join’em. Thus, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was born—the third incarnation in less than 20 years!

This unprecedented deal was struck in 2015, allowing Marvel Studios to use Spider-Man in its groundbreaking Marvel Cinematic Universe, while still allowing Sony to “finance, distribute, own and have final creative control” of the Spider-Man films. Their partnership resulted in Holland’s Spider-Man appearing in five MCU films, first introducing him in Captain America: Civil War (the filmmakers had a version of the script without Spider-Man just in case the deal fell through); two Avengers films, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame; and two solo films, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Then, in 2018, Sony released its first Spider-Man film not starring Spider-Man, instead, starring one of the hero’s biggest baddies, Venom (played by Tom Hardy). This was intended to establish a separate cinematic universe apart from Marvel’s MCU, which Sony dubbed as “Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters,” or, SPUMC (not as catchy as “MCU” is it?). Venom was an unexpected success, grossing over $856 million worldwide—more than any other Spider-Man film prior, with the exception of Spider-Man 3 ($894 million) and the MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming ($880 million). Venom’s success paved the way for Sony’s upcoming films based on Spider-Man villains, set within the SPUMC, including Morbius, starring Jared Leto, set to be released in 2022, and Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, set for release in 2023.

In the same year as Venom’s release, Sony also released the ambitious animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to universal critical acclaim (a rarity for Sony’s Spidey films, including Venom) and even won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, besting mainstays like Pixar (Incredibles 2) and Walt Disney Animation (Ralph Breaks the Internet).

The back-to-back success of Venom and Into the Spider-Verse gave Sony more clout, so when it came time to renew the partnership between the studio and Marvel, things got trickier. Far From Home had just become Sony’s highest grossing film of all time ($1.132 billion). Disney, Marvel’s parent company, felt like they were instrumental in revitalizing the Spider-Man film franchise (which is hard to argue with), and requested a 50/50 stake in future Spidey films. Sony wanted to keep the current agreement, which provides Disney with 5% of first-dollar gross and all merchandising revenue. Neither party was able to come to an agreement, meaning Sony would make all future Spidey films alone, which also meant Tom Holland’s Spider-Man wouldn’t appear in any future MCU films.

Naturally, fans freaked out. Puppy-eyed Tom Holland personally reached out to Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman and then-Disney CEO Bob Iger to work it out. A month later, Sony and Marvel announced they’d signed a new agreement, with Marvel producing a third Spider-Man film (the recently announced Spider-Man: No Way Home) starring Holland. Under this new deal, Disney would receive 25% of the profits, retain its merchandising rights, and put up 25% of the financing. Holland’s Spider-Man would also be allowed to appear in one additional MCU film (my guess is it’ll be the next Avengers-level event). Most curious, though, was Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige’s comment in the press release announcing the new deal: 

“Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.”

That last sentence, specifically “cross cinematic universes,” provided a clue to what would come next. Was Sony planning to incorporate Holland’s Spider-Man into their own cinematic universe that was first established in Venom? The first trailer for Morbius, released in January 2020, hinted at this when it revealed Michael Keaton, who played the villainous Adrian Toomes aka Vulture in Holland’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. And in August of this year, Sony rebranded their cinematic universe to “Sony’s Spider-Man Universe,” aka the SSU.

Which brings me back to Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Like the original, it was a poorly-received film that’s somehow doing way better at the box office than it deserves to be. The mid-credits scene in the film depicted Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and Venom being transported from their tropical hotel room into a new, unknown room after a mysterious flash of light. On the television screen was breaking news, featuring the same clip played at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home—J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) revealing Spider-Man’s identity as Peter Parker (Tom Holland). The SSU and MCU are now officially connected, much to Marvel’s chagrin.

Though Marvel has never said anything negative about this connection publicly, I’m 99% sure they’re not happy about Sony’s decision to connect their respective cinematic universes. Despite my qualms about Marvel’s films, they still pump out reliably good superhero films. Their worst films will never match the terrible quality of Fox’s Fantastic Four films (all of them) or later X-Men films (Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, New Mutants), Sony’s non-MCU Spidey films (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage), and other films from the early aughts like Daredevil, Hulk, The Punisher, Elektra, and Ghost Rider. Marvel Studios is notoriously protective of their brand, parting ways with filmmakers who deviate too far from where they plan to go creatively.

I, too, am concerned about Sony connecting the two universes. Prior to Venom 2’s release, I heard online ramblings about the film’s “mind-blowing” mid-credits scene. I managed to avoid spoilers, but had a feeling it would be something MCU-related. And, to my disappointment, I was right. When I saw that scene, I (internally) sighed, for the reasons I’ve already stated in the previous paragraph. I’m not particularly optimistic about Sony’s handling of their live-action superhero films. Despite the fact that I actually like Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man films (contrary to their mixed-to-negative reception), I still admit they’re narratively messy and nowhere near the quality executed by Marvel Studios. And the Venom films are just so meh.

Maybe I’m thinking too much into this. After all, these are just films! And if Sony really does do a bad job with their future Spidey films, I can just pretend they don’t exist, right? If only Doctor Stranger were real so I can ask him to make me forget the existence of the SSU.