‘Spider-Verse’s Lord & Miller Are Developing Live-Action Sony/Marvel TV Universe
An interesting little bit of info came out in a recent interview with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the people behind the brilliant animated feature ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’. They are developing, not one, but “a handful of live-action shows using Sony’s Marvel characters,” Miller commented.
Talking to Deadline during the recent TCA event, Chris Miller teased a possible suite of shows they have in development under their overall deal with Sony Pictures TV. “We are developing a handful of live-action shows using Sony’s Marvel characters, of which there are like 900 characters,” he commented.
Whilst he couldn’t be drawn on exactly what those shows would be, we do know that the Sony/Marvel deal gives Sony access to Spider-man and a huge slew of Spidey related characters and villains. He goes on to say “We’re figuring out a way to develop the shows so that each are their own unique experience but are also related.” That sounds like a not too dissimilar idea to the Marvel/Netflix ‘Defenders’ shows, although, he goes on to add “We’ve been talking to a lot of potential teammates for trying to do something not like anything else that’s been done on television. It’ll be a little while before it all comes together and is on the air, but I think it is going to be something really special.” You have our attention, Mr Miller…
Although it seems extremely unlikely we will see Tom Holland pop up in a Spider-man tv show, it’s possible we could get an alt-Spidey such as those seen in the ‘Spider-Verse’ movie. I guess a Miles Morales series wouldn’t be out of the question, but they may rather save a character like that for later use in the movies to take over from Holland eventually decides to hang up his web-shooters. You still have a whole bunch of other “Spider” characters they could tap, such as Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, Scarlet Spider… to name but a few.
We would guess there are discussions going on behind the scenes about what characters they would like to use in tv, and what Sony want to hold on to for the films. They also won’t want to be stepping on Marvel’s toes when it comes to the juggernaut that is the MCU. We know the Venom-related characters are being held for that film franchise, with ‘Venom 2’ coming next year directed by Andy Serkis. They also have a ‘Morbius’ movie due next year and are believed to have various other films in development involving ‘Nightwatch’, ‘Kraven the Hunter’, and the long-gestating ‘Sinister Six’ flick.
This news doesn’t give a lot away right now, but the idea of a new suite of shows based in the ‘Spider-Verse’ helmed by Lord and Miller does have us excited at the possibilities. We’ll let you know when they announce something more concrete.
