Following its final flop with Kraven the Hunter in December 2024, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is no more – but I’m still fascinated by the subsequent cancelation of a mystery movie in 2025. It took six movies for Sony to finally call time on its ill-fated Marvel movie franchise, as no subsequent installment could hold a candle to the initial roaring success of 2018’s Venom. While the three Venom movies would become a billion-dollar trilogy, the combined gross of Sony’s other three Marvel movies failed to measure up to Venom’s lowest-grossing film, Venom: The Last Dance, alone.

Given Venom was ostensibly written out of the franchise in Venom: The Last Dance, Sony’s ultimate decision didn’t come as much of a surprise. With Venom out of the picture, the only recourse for Sony was to accept that other Spider-Man-adjacent characters were simply nonstarters, with minor characters like Morbius and Madame Web failing to inspire even half as much enthusiasm as the wildly popular Lethal Protector. While the writing may have been on the wall for now-canceled future projects, however, I can’t help but wonder if the mystery seventh installment might have been a different story.

2025’s Canceled Sony Marvel Movie Explained

Sony Revealed An Unтιтled Project For 2025

Sony updated its upcoming release slate in January, shifting the dates of a few anticipated releases like Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing. The as-yet-unтιтled Marvel movie penciled for July 27, 2025, meanwhile, was outright removed from the slate. The unтιтled project was initially added to Sony’s release slate in June 2023 (via The Wrap) alongside an unтιтled movie for November 2024, which turned out to be Venom: The Last Dance. What the unтιтled movie for this July was, however, remains a complete mystery.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what Sony might have planned for this slot. The fact that it was specifically announced as a live-action project also precludes the possibility that it might have been a potential slot for the highly anticipated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the release date of which remains up in the air. At the same time, the fact that we remained in the dark about the intended тιтle so close to its release by a matter of months is notable. After all, there’s no way it could align with the development schedules of projects we were aware of.

Sony Had Plenty Of Projects, But Its Canceled 2025 Movie Doesn’t Seem Like Any Of Them

There Have Been Plenty Of Sony Spider-Man Projects In Various Stages Of Development

Before drawing a line beneath the franchise, Sony had announced several projects that may now never see the light of day. Frustratingly, I think many of these projects might have been far better received than wildcard characters like Madame Web and Kraven, though it looks like Sony’s decision to remove the unтιтled project from July spells doom for most, if not all, of these projects. Many of them had also been in development for quite some time, but I doubt they were the ones intended for the July 2025 slot.

Put simply, we haven’t heard a thing about these projects for quite a while. Making movies and shows takes more than seven months, and without so much as a confirmation of their development progress, I can only ᴀssume that these were not the projects slated for the July slot. Projects like the one featuring Black Cat and Silver Sable have been languishing in development hell for several years, while the Nicholas Cage-fronted Spider-Noir only resumed production this January with the potential to be released next year, though no date has yet been confirmed.

Another Sony Spider-Man Universe Movie Would’ve Seemingly Been Set Up In Kraven Or Venom 3

Sony Could Have Set Up Its Upcoming Movie In Its Two Most Recent Releases

The post-credits scene tease is now a mainstay of superhero movies, and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe was no different in this regard. That was, at least, until Kraven the Hunter, which was conspicuously devoid of a post-credits set-up for a future installment just weeks before the news of Sony’s fateful decision to pause the franchise was revealed. I can’t help but wonder, therefore, if the post-credits scene that was initially supposed to be slotted in would have set up this mystery installment months before its release.

Venom: The Last Dance delivered one of Sony’s most exciting post-credits scenes with its depiction of Knull and his threat to destroy Earth and humanity. Sadly, outside of incorporating the eldritch god into the MCU, it looks like Knull’s debut will never pay off. With that being said, there were a few characters teased to reappear down the line in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, including Juno Temple’s Agony in Venom: The Last Dance and Fred Hechinger’s Chameleon in Kraven the Hunter.

Knull was ostensibly set to provide the Thanos-level threat for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. The mystery live-action installment would likely have included at least some mention of Knull following Venom: The Last Dance‘s set-up, though whether it was intended as the Sinister Six team-up movie or a standalone featuring yet another peripheral Spider-Man character will seemingly remain a mystery. It’s a frustrating development and one that I’m going to struggle to forget.

I’ll Always Be Curious About What Sony’s Mystery Canceled Project Actually Was

We’ll Probably Never Know What Sony Intended

While things were not looking good for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe for quite some time, I’ll always wonder whether this unтιтled project might have changed the franchise’s fortunes. One of the main concerns leveled at Sony’s Spider-Man Universe was the conspicuous lack of Spider-Man, and this could have been the one movie to finally feature the eponymous wall-crawler. On the other hand, Madame Web had already introduced a slew of female characters with similar powers including two iterations of Spider-Woman and Araña.

With that in mind, I wonder if this slot was intended to be a sequel to one of Sony’s failed projects like Madame Web. Every movie in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe ended up foreshadowing a future installment and two of the most exciting were in Morbius and Madame Web. Morbius‘ post-credits tease of the Sinister Six may have been hamfisted, but it would be disingenuous of me to suggest that I wasn’t enthusiastic about the outcome. At the same time, I can’t wait until we see a movie that spotlights Spider-Woman, an as-yet unexplored character that might have been the Spider-hero Sony needed.

I think this fits the general timeline of events. While I’m sure the movie would have been delayed, it looks like Sony was waiting to see how Kraven the Hunter would perform before announcing any upcoming Sinister Six project – but as the biggest box office bomb of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, this was the final nail in the coffin. Madame Web, meanwhile, was only released last year, and Sony might have been holding out hope that Kraven the Hunter could keep the franchise’s head above water before announcing a Spider-Woman spinoff.

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  February 14, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Secret Wars

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Source: The Wrap & ᴅᴇᴀᴅline