We could be seeing Sadie Sink take the place of Zendaya in Spider-Man: Brand New Day as the Stranger Things star is rumored to be ing the MCU as a multiverse variant of none other than Gwen Stacy.

It’s been a tough few years for MCU Spider-Man fans. Can you believe it’s been nearly four whole years since we last saw Tom Holland’s web-slinging hero on the big screen? How the time flies. But at long last we’re seeing signs of life with Marvel gearing up for a fourth movie in 2026, and with the hype of a new Spidey instalment comes all the rumors and speculation we’re used to seeing.

The Sadie Sink rumor explored

The rumor has been attributed to Jeff Sneider, the same guy who claimed Robert Downey Jr. would be playing Doctor Doom two months before the announcement was made. If his source is right then that means we could be seeing Sink swing onto our screens as the new live-action Gwen Stacy.

While Sneider has proven himself to be reliable with leaks in the past he isn’t always spot on. Three months ago he was saying that Sink’s role in the MCU might be as an MJ variant. Prior to that he was claiming she was set to play Jean Grey. So let’s take what this guy says with a grain of salt. It certainly sounds like Sadie Sink will be appearing in the MCU in some capacity, but the exact details of her role are somewhat vague right now.

Fan reactions to the news ranged from excitement, with some saying she’s perfect for the role, to confusion, with one person noting that she has “been rumored so far to be playing 10 different characters.”

What does this mean for Zendaya?

We have plenty of questions about this casting of course. First of all, will Sink be playing regular Gwen Stacy or Spider-Gwen? If it’s the former then that would make her a potential love interest to Peter Parker. So what would that mean for Zendaya’s MJ? 

The truth is we just don’t know right now. It’s not even confirmed that this is 100% the role Sadie Sink will be playing in the Spider-Man film. In all honesty even if Sink does the cast as Gwen there will probably always be room for Zendaya/MJ. Her character is pretty much integral to every Spider-Man story and it’s hard to imagine Marvel giving us a Spider-Man story without Tom Holland and Zendaya. 

Let’s not forget the fact that the two are also engaged in real life making it even more unlikely that Marvel would keep them separate on-screen. Either way, it will be interesting to see how the dynamics of this iteration of Peter Parker and MJ shift with the potential addition of Gwen Stacy.

Amy Pascal, a veteran Hollywood producer whose credits include all three of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films, is said to be “getting started” with work on the new James Bond film. 

News of the beloved spy film’s development was revealed at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The reveal came courtesy of Amazon MGM, who made headlines in February when they gained full creative ownership of the James Bond franchise over longtime former owners, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Speaking at the event, Amazon MGM executives Courtenay Valenti and Sue Kroll said Pascal and the team are “committed to honoring the legacy of this iconic character while bringing a fresh, exotic new chapter to audiences around the world.”

Amy Pascal and David Heyman are now starting work on the next James Bond movie.

Pascal produced the ‘Spider-Man’ films & Heyman produced the ‘Harry Potter’ films. pic.twitter.com/lI6ktGEBVs

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) April 3, 2025

Pascal, however, couldn’t attend the James Bond CinemaCon event, because she was “getting started” on producing the movie in London. Pascal ing the project, and news that the ball is rolling on production, means we’re bound to hear updates about the long-awaited James Bond, which had long been stalling some four years after the most recent installment, No Time To Die, arrived back in 2021. Pascal ed as a producer alongside Britain’s own David Heyman, whose credits are equally starry and include Padding and Harry Potter. 

Bond about to get that blockbuster treatment again

— Capitán (@SirTopiano) April 3, 2025

Since it’s been so long between James Bond outings, and given the fears that the franchise was doomed entirely, fans reacted excitedly to news of two veteran producers kicking the next film into high gear. “Expect web-slinging martinis and wand duels,” one X wrote in reference to Pascal and Heyman’s credits. Others said “Bond [is] about to get that blockbuster treatment again,” or predicted that the producing pair are “gonna create some magic with the new Bond movie.” 

expect web-slinging martinis and wand duels

— nox (@noxlonga) April 3, 2025

Even with this new development, however, one lingering question remains perpetually on the minds of fans — who is going to play James Bond? That question has plagued the franchise ever since Daniel Craig departed from the role in 2021, but Pascal’s producer hat grants the movie a wealth of leading men to choose from. In February, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos posed that very same question to his followers on X, with the resounding answer being Tom Hardy. 

Elsewhere, fans have long campaigned for Idris Elba to become the famous martini-drinking spy. Fellow fan-casts have named the likes of Henry Cavill, Challengers star Josh O’Connor, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the latter of whom responded to speculation by saying he “love[s] slipping on a tuxedo.” Just as loud as the chatter around James Bond’s identity is the debate about whether the role should be gender-flipped. Just last week, actress Helen Mirren dismissed the idea of a female James Bond not because it would ruin the movie, but because she “never liked the way women were [portrayed] in James Bond.” 

Wherever they land (my pick is Taylor-Johnson, but I’m biased for heartthrobs), we can at least rest assured that the James Bond is out of in-development hell and moving full steam ahead. With all this chat of leading men, I’m feeling a little shaken (not stirred).

Spider-Man: No Way Home was a dream movie for wallcrawler fans, uniting all three big-screen Spideys for a truly jaw-dropping multiversal adventure. It ended with the bittersweet erasing of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker from everyone’s memory, though left him primed to begin a new superhero career as a self-made, street-level Spider-Man.

Now, finally, we know when we’re going to see this play out. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will release on Jul. 31, 2026, meaning it’ll come hot on the heels of Avengers: Doomsday, which lands on May 1, 2026.

Anyone who’s seen No Way Home will know the new status quo presents a literal “new day” for Peter Parker, but the specific phrase “Brand New Day” also refers to a 2008 comics run of the same name, which may give us some clues about what to expect from the plot. So, here’s how it goes down in Marvel Comics.

The ‘Brand New Day’ plot

This story follows immediately after the “One More Day” storyline, in which Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary-Jane Watson was erased by Mephisto, along with a soft reset of Spidey’s world. Now his secret identity is once again safe, Harry Osborn and Aunt May have returned from the dead, and Pete is sporting his mechanical webshooters.

“One More Day” is considered one of the all-time worst Spidey stories but, given that the MCU Spidey is also dealing with a reset of the status quo in which nobody knows his secret identity, a loose adaptation of “Brand New Day” makes sense.

The run also features several plot points we’d expect to see on screen. For example, in the comics, Parker realizes The Daily Bugle is in dire financial straits and is craving new Spidey pics to boost sales. J. Jonah Jameson actor JK Simmons has refused to confirm or deny whether he’s returning in Brand New Day, only saying “No spoilers. Sorry, I’m not telling”. That said, seeing Holland’s Spidey working for Jameson would be hilarious, so we hope it happens.

Thankfully for Zendaya fans, Mary Jane is also part of the comics’ storyline. Though she and Pete didn’t get married, they were in a long-term relationship that didn’t work out and are frosty towards each other. That won’t be the case in the MCU as Zendaya’s MJ has completely forgotten Pete, though we strongly suspect they’ll be back in each other’s arms by the time credits roll.

Mister Negative is from this story in the comics…what a peak evening. https://t.co/T7ncN8PAGL pic.twitter.com/2VoxWaiKdu

— Grayson Mann (@gray_mann21) April 1, 2025

There’s also a key villain who may feature in Brand New Day from the comics storyline. Most prominent is Martin Li/Mister Negative, who runs a homeless shelter but is secretly a crime boss with bizarre magical powers. His status as a villain was greatly boosted by a central appearance in the 2018 video game Marvel’s Spider-Man, so his leaping the MCU would make sense.

It’s also possible that Brand New Day is only taking the name and nothing else from the comics. After all, we expect Tom Holland to at least appear in Doomsday or Secret Wars in some capacity, and if the events of those movies are as world-changing as Infinity War/Endgame, we may find Spidey in a very different place than we left him at the end of No Way Home. Here’s hoping we get some more hints soon!

As the rumor mill continues to churn out speculation about a long-awaited Venom and Spider-Man crossover, Tom Hardy has come through with an official update. 

Before you get your painties (or web-slingers) in a twist, I regret to inform you that it isn’t particularly promising news. Hardy, who portrayed Eddie Brock/Venom in Sony’s trilogy of the loveable anti-hero, addressed all the rumors of a potential onscreen collaboration with Peter Parker in a recent interview on The Discourse Podcast. 

Tom Hardy says a Spider-Man and Venom crossover film 'got close' to happening, but studio politics prevented it

"I would have loved to have done [it] because that just means so much fun"

(via Discourse Pod) pic.twitter.com/hHKeD8jGo6

— Culture Crave (@CultureCrave) March 31, 2025

Since Spider-Man and Venom exist in the same universe — with the latter character even appearing in Tobey Maguire’s iteration of Spider-Man — the speculation of some form of crossover was well-placed. However, Hardy isn’t so sure it’ll ever come to fruition. “We got close,” Hardy said about a crossover with the Tom Holland version of Spider-Man. “We got as close as I could possibly imagine getting, apart from doing a film together.”

Later on, The Discourse Podcast host Mike DeAngelo asked whether “studio politics” had anything to do with the crossover being killed, and his response certainly pointed towards the affirmative. “[The project] never happened for all the reasons that you explained ultimately in there.” The actor didn’t elaborate on exactly what that meant, but he did express excitement at the idea of a crossover “for the kids,” who are the target market he had in mind for the hypothetical film. 

Tom Hardy confirms ‘Spider-Man & Venom’ is dead.

Studio politics got in the way, and that bridge was ultimately burned. He doesn’t mention if the crossover was going to happen in Spider-Man 4 like originally reported. pic.twitter.com/0BQmDl0vdY

— Hernandy D. Morales (@hernandy_s) March 31, 2025

“Fundamentally, for me, it would be for the kids,” Hardy said of why he wanted to do a Venom-Spider-Man project. “Because, you know, as much as adults love superhero films, as you can tell by the box office when they’re successful, I think I’m constantly reminded by children how important these characters are.” That, for Hardy, would be the main justification for a crossover, since children viewers “don’t know why their favorite characters aren’t in films together.” 

News of the nixed Venom and Spider-Man project flies in the face of earlier promises made by those involved in the project. In 2019, Ruben Fleischer, who directed the first installment of the Venom franchise, confirmed to Fandom that the plan was always to build Hardy’s comic book franchise into a meeting with Holland’s Spider-Man. “That’s where it’s all going to lead,” Fleischer said at the time. He went on to reveal that the change in the origin story for the character of Venom “because of the Marvel-Sony thing” allowed him to envision a scenario in which Spider-Man and Venom “actually do confront each other.”

Seems like what Fleischer was hinting at in regards to Marvel and Sony’s dual ownership of Spider-Man might be the “studio politics” that Hardy mentioned. While we won’t see Venom in it, the installment of Holland’s Spider-Man franchise is very much moving along. Today, the name for the film — the fourth entry into the franchise — was revealed as Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with a release date slated for July 31, 2026. Who knows, maybe by then Hardy will figure out a way to web-sling his way into Holland’s franchise, and we’d certainly be here for that!

Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again episode 3.

Marvel fans are always clamoring for a Spider-Man/Daredevil team-up, but the truth is the studio’s already given us that dream two-fer twice over at this point. See Charlie Cox’s cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Man Without Fear’s epic cameo in recent animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Now Daredevil: Born Again is teasing a different kind of Spidey crossover, one which is a lot more novel.

Episode 3 of the new Disney Plus show, “The Hollow Of His Hand,” focuses on Matt Murdock’s attempts to get Hector Ayala/White Tiger cleared of his cop-killer charge. The defense attorney’s case cruxes on Ayala’s double life as a heroic vigilante, with Matt providing numerous police reports that detail how the White Tiger has been ally to the police many times in the past. While making his point, Murdock rolls off various police officers who have described Hector positively. One such name he mentions is an “Officer Morales.”

You can’t mention the surname Morales in a Marvel context without one character springing to mind, and yes, it seems like this was a deliberate Easter egg to the Ultimate Spider-Man himself, Miles Morales. As fans will know from Sony’s Spider-Verse animated movies, Miles’ dad is an NYC police officer. So this appears to be yet another confirmation that Miles exists somewhere out there in the MCU.

Where is Miles Morales in the MCU?

We got our first confirmation that Miles Morales exists on Earth-616 199999 way back in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, when Donald Glover appeared as Aaron Davis, Miles’ uncle in Marvel lore. He even tells Peter Parker that he’s going to be late picking his nephew up from school. Glover later reprised his role in Across the Spider-Verse, which confirmed the MCU’s Aaron became supervillain the Prowler at some later point.

Despite that being a full decade ago in the MCU timeline, Miles has still yet to show his face in this franchise — cleverly, Marvel never confirmed what kind of school Miles was attending back in Homecoming, so his age remains extremely flexible. It could be notable that Daredevil’s namedrop of “Officer Morales” is happening when Spider-Man 4 is right around the corner, and Tom Holland might be looking to on his mantle to another wallcrawling successor.

That said, it should be pointed out that Morales is Miles’ mother’s name and his father is actually called Jefferson Davis. Still, that’s not a dealbreaker, as Jefferson could always have taken his wife’s name in this continuity. Harmless Easter egg or deliberate plant for a pay-off in the not-so-distant future? Considering the premiere also saw Fisk sneer about “a man who dresses in a spider outfit,” it does feel like the Spidey and Daredevil corners of the MCU are bleeding together.

Whether in Spider-Man 4 — releasing July 31, 2026 — or Daredevil: Born Again season 2 — filming now — it sure seems like we’re swinging toward a true collision of the webhead and the hornhead. Whether it’s Peter Parker under that mask or not.

Another Spider-Man star is on their way to the altar! Just two months after Tom Holland and Zendaya’s engagement was revealed, the web-slinger’s wingman decided to put a ring on it, too. 

And while Tomdaya have still maintained tight lips about their engagement, Jacob Batalon isn’t keeping hush. In fact, he’s shouting on the rooftops how excited he is to become a husband soon. And maybe, just maybe, these couples will be present at each other’s nuptials. That would surely appease the fans for sure.

Jacob Batalon is also engaged!

Unlike with the Tomdaya engagement, there’s no confusion for Jacob Batalon. The Spider-Man actor proposed to his girlfriend under a starry sky with a romantic heart-shaped backdrop made of roses and candles on Wednesday, Mar. 5. The couple shared the news in separate Instagram posts. Batalon posted a carousel of four pictures from the night, captioned, “The beginning of the rest of our lives together,” with a string of adorably excited emojis.

His fiancée, Veronica Leahov, shared the pictures as well. She captioned hers: “A lifetime of us!!!! I never imagined my heart could hold so much love and feel such depth of emotion. This is the purest happiness I’ve ever known, and I can’t wait to spend forever with the love of my life.”

The first picture showed him down on one knee, popping the question to his shocked fiancée who had her hands over her mouth. A gorgeous rose heart backdrop also had the words “would you marry me?” in neon lights. The beautiful New York City lights in the background added to the ambience. Rounding out the post were sweet photos of the couple embracing, as well as a close-up of the ring.

Their engagement comes just two months after Batalon’s Spider-Man co-star, Tom Holland also put a ring on it. Holland and Zendaya have never been too loud about their relationship. Therefore, it’s no surprise that neither of them posted any pictures from the engagement. Nonetheless, their engagement became public when Zendaya came out for the 2025 Golden Globes with a huge diamond on her ring finger. The couple still haven’t made any statements, but sources have confirmed that Holland proposed over the Christmas holidays. 

Who is Batalon’s fiancée? 

Veronica Leahov is an interior designer and is currently working with Aaron Dussier. According to her biography on her website, she was born and raised in Moldova and studied interior design in Belgium. She got her Master’s in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. She worked with Rockwell Group for two years from 2019 to 2021, which eventually led to her scoring more international jobs and establishing herself in the United States. 

David Rockwell was her mentor at Rockwell Group, and she cites him as an inspiration to her current style. After leaving Rockwell Group, she briefly worked as a Sales Associate at Miu Miu. Following that, she  worked as a Commercial Interior Designer for RH until 2024. 

Leahov often shows off her work on her Instagram page, and also has a gallery of her projects on her website. Speaking on her style, she shared on her website, “Working across cultures and countries, I bring a blend of European style and international experience to the creation of a uniquely modern design.”

Everyone knows Uncle Ben’s motto: “With great power comes great responsibility”. But the Spider-Verse is a big place and there’s an awful lot of Uncle Bens out there (all, sadly, doomed). Right now, one Ben Parker is lighting up social media with a very different — and extremely relevant — motto.

Over on the Marvel True Facts Instagram, attention has been drawn to Ben Parker in the Spider-Man: Noir universe, who has a moral code that’s clearly resonating strongly in these dark times of Trump and Musk: “If those in power can’t be trusted, it’s the responsibility of the people to remove them.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Marvel True Facts (@marveltruefacts)

Let’s give a little context on the Noir universe. Most people will be familiar with the Nicolas Cage-voiced monochrome brooder from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but Spider-Man Noir (or Spider-Noir) debuted in 2009 in a self-titled limited run by writers David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky, and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico.

Set in the 1930s during the Great Depression, Spider-Man Noir reimagines the classic Spidey story with a political twist. Ben and May Parker are left-wing radicals fighting for workers’ rights, and Peter defines himself as a socialist working for the greater good. Uncle Ben’s community organizing sees him fall foul of shady business Norman Osborn, resulting in his kidnapping and brutal murder. From there it’s a hop, skip, and a web-swing to Peter getting Spidey-powers and honoring Uncle Ben by eradicating corruption with his fists and bullets.

Replies to the are evenly split between the political camps. Those on the left are cheerleading Ben’s anti-corruption stance, seeing clear parallels to the tenets of the United States Constitution and the current inhabitants of the White House. Meanwhile, MAGA types are spluttering mad about left-wing politics in comic books, having apparently missed the point of much of what Marvel has published over the last 60 years.

It remains to be seen how much of Spider-Man Noir‘s politics will make it into the live-action TV adaptation Spider-Noir. Intended as part of Sony’s extraordinarily wonky SSU, the show sees Nicolas Cage graduating from voicing the character to donning the costume before the cameras.

First look at Nicolas Cage Spider-Noir suit for the Spider-Man Noir. My body is ready! #SpiderMan pic.twitter.com/UKAqI7ok2Y

— John Flickinger (@theFLICKpick) October 25, 2024

The show’s synopsis says it’s about “an aging, down on his luck private investigator grapples with his past life as the only superhero in 1930s New York City”, which means we’ll see the Noir Spidey at the end of his career, though presumably there’ll be an explanation of how he received his powers and his motivation for fighting crime. The only other casting of note is Brendan Gleeson as a mob boss, presumably in a villainous role.

I’m hoping for something similar to HBO’s incredible The Penguin, throwing us into a more morally complex situation than we’re used to in comic books. However, I’m a little skeptical they’ve got the guts to include Noir Uncle Ben’s motto. Spider-Noir is being produced by Amazon MGM for Prime Video, and we doubt Jeff Bezos is eager to have his company even obliquely criticize the Trump istration. Then again, they do air The Boys, so who knows?

Stan Lee memorably once said that the “greatest thing about Spider-Man is that anyone could be under the costume.” He also stressed that Marvel’s stories “have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender or color of their skin… The only things we don’t have room for are hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.” This is all to say that Spider-Man is one of the “wokest” of all pop culture heroes, which is perhaps why some comments from Marvel’s latest Spidey star have caused such backlash.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man voice actor Hudson Thames — who is stepping into the shoes of Tom Holland for this MCU-adjacent animated series — managed to singlehandedly change the tide of goodwill towards the new show with one far too candid sentence. In an interview, Thames threatened to flush his reputation down the river when he itted that he once feared the series would be “annoying and woke” due to its diverse cast of characters.

When asked if he was excited to be part of a fresh take on Spider-Man, which paired Peter with the likes of Nico Minoru (an Asian-American out lesbian), Lonnie Lincoln (an African-American teen who deals with everyday racism in the show), and Norman Osborn (here portrayed as Black, voiced by Colman Domingo), Thames had something shocking to say.

“I thought it was awesome. I mean, my biggest fear was that it was gonna be annoying and woke, and it wasn’t, and I was like, ‘Yes, this is great, it’s so well written,’ like it feels real,” the 30-year-old actor said. “I’m the oldest of five boys, so I feel like I kind of know what’s happening in their lives and in high school, and it felt like it was doing that justice.”

Needless to say, Spider-Man fans haven’t been this furious since Gwen Stacy died. Given that Thames’ concerns over how “woke” his show would clash with virtually everything the wallcrawler has stood for 60 years, the fandom is now treating him with all the vitriol of J. Jonah Jameson on a bad day.

The darkly comic memes are also swinging in. Fans seem to think that this friendly neighborhood Spider-Man wouldn’t necessarily be friendly to the whole neighborhood.

Unfortunately for Thames, there’s now a growing population wishing for Marvel to replace him on future seasons — the series is already renewed through season 3. The top picks are long-term favorite Spidey voice actors Yuri Lowenthal (the Insomniac games) and Josh Keaton (Spectacular Spider-Man).

For once, fans are eager to see a Spider-Man actor get what you might call the Andrew Garfield treatment.

I guess we’ve seen every other kind of Spider-Man out there in the multiverse already…

Thames’ comments might have done their best to tank the fans’ interest in this series, but one fan had a more fair-minded take on this here controversy, encouraging others to to the creatives who worked hard on this show and who have absolutely nothing to do with Thames running off his mouth.

Showrunner Jeff Trammell, for instance, had a much more positive interpretation of the show’s increased diversity, stressing that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is “flush with representation that accurately portrays the many different cultures in one of the biggest cities on Earth.” Not “annoying and woke,” then, but simply an honest and authentic depiction of both New York and the world of Spider-Man. In the words of Stan Lee, ’nuff said.

With great power comes great responsibility… and the natural instinct to fight crime in the produce aisle.

In a compelling interview with Men’s Health, Tom Holland shared that although he attempts to be a regular person shopping at Whole Foods, he once helped two guys who got into a physical altercation at the store. He said, “I can see that he’s recognized me immediately, and you could see the wheels turning, like, I’m really angry, but Spider-Man is telling me to calm down. So, yeah, I go to the supermarket.”

I can’t be the only person dying to know what’s on Holland’s typical grocery list, right? Does he buy cow’s or almond milk? Stress over the ripeness of avocados? Go for grass-fed meat? Well, when he’s training for the Spider-Man franchise, he’s focusing on green veggies, carbs, and protein, according to Men’s Health. And always being on the alert for danger, even at Whole Foods, counts as training, too. He’s also quick with the paparazzi!

Holland’s story is a pointed reminder of how much life changes when an actor signs on to a Marvel franchise. He can’t buy milk and eggs without people knowing exactly who he is, and, of course, everyone is eager to find out as much as they can about his relationship with Zendaya. While I bet he would have helped those two guys fighting even if he wasn’t Tom Holland/Spider-Man, his Marvel status definitely made this a more memorable experience. Now they have a story to tell forever… and so does anyone else who witnessed this.

Besides that moment when he had to tap into his Spidey senses, Holland continued in his interview with Men’s Health that he hopes for a regular existence once he starts a family (and to golf more). He said, “When I have kids, you will not see me in movies anymore… I will just disappear off the face of the earth.” Could Holland and Zendaya stay together and become co-parents? Doesn’t everyone hope this amazing dream could come true?

OK, that was a distracting thought, but back to Holland’s desire to be a totally regular guy. I’m not the only one who would argue he has such big star power that this could never happen, but I get his wish to stray from the typical Hollywood crowd. In 2023, he was interviewed by Tom Power on his show Q and said that after his third Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, “Now I get followed everywhere I go. There’s paparazzi that sit outside my house. I can’t have a relationship with someone without it being front page news.” That doesn’t sound fun at all. It’s tempting to be jealous of money and fame, but it’s also easy to see how celebrities miss certain parts of their old lives, like shopping for groceries in peace.

Holland also spoke to Men’s Health about no longer drinking, something he has kept up since Jan. 2022. This led him to create the non-alcoholic beer brand, BERO. Whether being vulnerable about saying goodbye to alcohol or itting he can never leave Spider-Man behind even in a fancy grocery store, Holland is a true superhero, because he’s so kind and down-to-earth. And now I’m jealous that I’m never going to see him at my local Whole Foods.

Sony’s Spider-Man universe is a cinematic laughing stock. Just when it seemed Kraven the Hunter was going to change all that, audience and critics’ reviews (somewhat inevitably) proved otherwise. So not even Aaron Taylor-Johnson could save the SSU.

Over the years, Sony’s extended universe of Spider-Man villain movies has been underperforming. The studio has made valiant attempts to capture the glory of the MCU before it, but it looks like Sony might be ready to throw in the towel, because even the CEO’s flabbergasted.

Kraven the Hunter’s box office flop

Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven, the movie set out to explore the his complex relationship with his father. However, despite the considerable star power Taylor-Johnson brought to the role, it was met with negative reviews and little audience interest.

Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO, Tony Vinciquerra spoke to the Los Angeles Times about his tenure as CEO, and his thoughts on the failed Sony Spider-Man universe, or SSU. Vinciquerra will be stepping down after seven years of service, and Sony COO Ravi Ahuja will take on the role. When asked about his thoughts on the performance of Sony’s recent movies, including Kraven and Madame Web, which were released earlier this year, Vinciquerra was pretty much lost for words. He said he doesn’t understand why Kraven didn’t do well, because “the film is not a bad film.” 

For Madame Web, he turned the blame to the press, saying, “Madame Web underperformed in the theaters because the press crucified it. It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix.” However, his thoughts on the movie are a huge contradiction to what audiences were saying about it. Madame Web, and Dakota Johnson’s portrayal of the titular character, were widely regarded as simply bad. 

Kraven on the other hand, had the dishonor of setting the record for the worst opening weekend of any movie in the SSU, earning only $26 million on a budget of $110-150 million. 

The SSU is on its last legs

Following Tobey Maguire’s iconic run as Spider-Man, and Andrew Garfield’s popular but critically panned time in the suit, Sony and Marvel Studios came to a deal for Spidey in the MCU. Tom Holland’s wild success in the role led Sony to try to ride on the MCU’s coattails and release a litany of movies centered around Spidey-related villains. 

The SSU began with Venom and its sequel Let There Be Carnage and includes six movies in total. The Venom movies are often regarded as the only decent movies in the Sony Spider-Man Universe, while Morbius marked the beginning of their laughing stock era. Venom’s trilogy ended with Venom: The Last Dance, and while all three of his movies performed moderately well, the same can’t be said for the rest of the SSU.

As of now, Kraven the Hunter is the final film in the SSU, and while many are happy to see it go, there will always be a lingering “what if” around these characters and what could have happened if they’d had better adaptations. 

If you’ve kept up with all the year’s big releases, this one likely tops your “worst” list. But Sony Pictures CEO could not fathom why — until s on X spelled it out for him.

As his seven-year tenure comes to an end coming January, Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra spoke to the Los Angeles Times reflecting on the studio’s performance this year. In retrospection, most Sony comic book movies fairly disappointed fans — Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance, Kraven the Hunter — you name it. But as Vinciquerra accepted that these features catastrophically underperformed in the theaters, he’s still not ready to call them “bad films.”

Taking specifically about Kraven the Hunter (yes, the movie nobody asked for), Vinciquerra revealed that it was “the worst launch” the studio had in seven and a half years. However, he added that he still doesn’t understand why that happened, because the film is “not a bad film,” in his eyes. Um, did you take the time to read the film’s reviews, Vinciquerra? Kraven the Hunter hangs with a mere 14% Rotten Tomatoes score and a mediocre 5.4/10 IMDb rating. In our words, it was “an offensively fangless film.“

But since the studio decided to be comfortably ignorant of all the critic reviews, s on X took it upon themselves to explain to Vinciquerra why Kraven the Hunter didn’t work. While most s reiterated that nobody asked for the film to be made in the first place, some wrote elaborate notes in hopes that Sony would learn something for its future projects.

One excellently summed it up:

“Filmmakers need to rid themselves of the attitude that ‘it’s a Marvel movie, we don’t have to make it good, it’ll make money regardless,’ when that’s clearly not the case. They should invest in the art of storytelling instead of milking the cash cow dry.”

But Kraven the Hunter did not, in fact, make any money despite being a Marvel film. The movie made a pitiful $11 million when it debuted in theaters on Dec. 13 — which is the lowest opening total for a Marvel film produced by Sony to date. While the film has made $43 million worldwide, its current domestic box office total is only $18 million. And what was the budget? $110 –130 million.

So, the storytelling, the CGI, the action sequences — everything in Kraven the Hunter was clearly a mess for it to fail this miserably. But another pointed out the fatal flaw of how it was “a movie about a Spider-Man villain with no Spider-Man” in it. At this point, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has become a rather ironic franchise, defined by the absence of its titular hero. Now how does that work, Vinciquerra?

One also pointed out the inherent awareness in Vinciquerra’s comments — “rather than saying it is a good film, he says it is not a bad film.” So, the studio is at least half aware that they didn’t do their best job. But then why did they release it? In a rather brutal reply, another wrote, “I would love to try whatever this dude is on because being so idiotically delusional seems like it must be bliss.” But this bliss is only taking the studio to its bottom. However, there might be some hope for the studio now that Vinciquerra will hand control of the CEO position to current Sony Pictures Chief Operating Officer Ravi Ahuja in a planned succession that was signaled for months. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Tom Holland and Zendaya are the perfect on-screen partners and off-screen couple, and he just proved why in a new podcast interview.

Unarguably everyone’s favorite Hollywood couple by now, Tom Holland and Zendaya never miss a chance to bring each other up and drop affirmations of love for each other anytime they speak to the media. A month after Zendaya opened up about what it’s like to make Spider-Man movies with her boyfriend, Holland has given his word on what it’s like to work with his lady love. Warning: you might feel overwhelmingly single after hearing this.

In a recent Christmas-themed episode of the Dish podcast, the host asked Holland what all of us had been dying to know: What is it like acting opposite his longtime girlfriend Zendaya? And well, I wouldn’t say the internet was not ready for the answer, but it’s still enough to have everyone kicking their feet in the air. “Oh God, yeah. It’s a saving grace. Yeah, the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he remarked (via Variety).

But before he gave this sweet and cheeky answer, Holland first hilariously quipped, “Studios love it. One hotel room. Separate drivers. We’re not crazy now. Listen it’s work, alright">they prove true love exists.