Sony and Amazon Consider Four New ‘Spider-Man’ TV Spinoffs

Sony’s journey to establish a television universe centered around ‘Spider-Man’ has been quite tumultuous over the years. What began as an ambitious initiative to explore numerous Marvel characters linked to the web-slinger has resulted in more setbacks than successes, testing the endurance of both the studio and its streaming partner.

Recently, this partnership faced another setback when Prime Video officially canceled ‘Spider-Noir’ after just one season, despite the series, led by Nicolas Cage, receiving positive reviews and several Emmy accolades. The cancellation was attributed to the increasingly prevalent streaming dilemma of balancing costs with viewership, even though critical acclaim indicated that Sony might have finally struck gold.

Instead of abandoning their Spider-Man television strategy, Sony and Amazon seem to be taking a more measured approach. According to an exclusive report, the two companies are evaluating four different scripts from the Spider-Man universe, with plans to potentially greenlight one or two of them, as detailed by The Ankler.

While the report does not specify which characters or storylines the four projects will focus on, it does mention the writers attached to each script. Kelvin Yu, known for creating and showrunning ‘American Born Chinese,’ is working on one project, while Alison Tatlock, an Emmy-nominated writer recognized for her contributions to ‘Better Call Saul’ and ‘Pluribus,’ is involved with another.

The writing team also includes Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert, the co-creators of ‘For All Mankind,’ along with Megan McDonnell, who gained recognition for her work on ‘WandaVision.’ This diverse group of talent spans various genres, from character-driven drama to high-concept science fiction, indicating that Sony is exploring a broad range of tones and styles.

This new slate comes after a series of challenges in adapting Sony’s Spider-Man-adjacent characters into successful film franchises. While ‘Venom’ achieved commercial success, other projects like ‘Morbius,’ ‘Madame Web,’ and ‘Kraven the Hunter’ struggled to transform relatively minor Spider-Man characters into engaging standalone films, leading Sony to pause further live-action spinoff development after ‘Kraven’s’ disappointing performance.

Television has proven to be equally challenging. The first project greenlit under Sony and Amazon’s broader television partnership, a Cindy Moon-led series titled ‘Silk: Spider Society’ with Angela Kang as showrunner, was completely scrapped before it could air, leaving ‘Spider-Noir’ as the first series to debut under the deal.

The cancellation of ‘Spider-Noir,’ despite its acclaim, highlights the lessons Sony and Amazon are trying to avoid repeating. The series had a strong start on Prime Video’s daily charts and generated significant buzz, but viewership reportedly declined rapidly, causing it to fall out of the platform’s top rankings sooner than similar recent titles.

This combination of a high production budget and diminishing audience retention seems to have heavily influenced Amazon’s choice not to renew the series for a second season. With four new scripts now vying for a limited number of opportunities, Sony and Amazon appear determined to incorporate more competition and scrutiny before allocating substantial resources to another costly series.

Whether this more selective strategy will yield a lasting hit remains uncertain, but it does indicate that both companies are committed to Spider-Man television as a long-term strategy rather than viewing ‘Spider-Noir’s’ cancellation as a reason to abandon the format. For now, fans will have to wait to see which characters and concepts make the final cut once Sony and Amazon finalize their next steps.

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