The Entire Sony Spider-Man Universe Explained
When the words "Sony" and "Spider-Man" are put together, a few particular images might come to mind. You might think about Tobey Maguire's original live-action "Spider-Man" trilogy, or how we wish that Andrew Garfield got a third "Amazing Spider-Man" film. But whatever you may think, Sony's "Spider-Man" Cinematic Universe (SSU) is a bit more complicated than either of these Spider-Men or their Marvel Cinematic Universe successor. Additionally, the SSU ventures beyond the animated "Spider-Verse" films, and thus far centers more on Spider-Man's rogue's gallery than the web-slinger himself.
While the SSU was first developed under Marc Webb's "Amazing Spider-Man" banner with Garfield's Spidey meant to be front and center, the recent MCU "Spider-Man: Home" trilogy changed all that. Instead, the franchise began with 2018's "Venom," which highlights the popular anti-hero. With Venom at the center, the franchise continued to expand on other "Spider-Man" baddies who had yet to see the light of motion picture day. With three films out so far and three more on the way, Sony's own Marvel Universe has been going strong, passing over a billion dollars at the box office.
But how does all of this connect? How do "Venom" and "Morbius" connect, if at all? And which live-action Spider-Man is the wall-crawler of the SSU? To answer all those questions, we've got to jump back to the early years of some of these villains and dissect their cinematic adventures which, yes, expand even across the Spider-Verse.
Those 1990s flashbacks
In the opening of "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," we're introduced to a young couple madly in love, with a heavy emphasis on mad. Sometime in the mid-'90s, a young Cletus Kasady (Jack Bandeira) meets a young Frances Barrison (Olumide Olorunfemi), a girl with the incredible superpower of sonic screaming, and the two become an item. But things aren't meant to last for these two, as Frances is soon taken from the St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children to be experimented on at the Ravencroft Institute — which fans may also recognize from the world of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." This leads to an escape attempt on Frances' part, but she's soon subdued by an officer Patrick Mulligan (Sean Delaney), who longtime Marvel fans may recognize as Toxin.
About a year later, a 10-year-old boy with a rare blood disease named Michael Morbius (Charlie Shotwell) is introduced to his new surrogate brother named Lucien. However, Michael doesn't exactly take to the name, so he re-names the other boy "Milo" (Joseph Esson). Despite the naming fiasco, Michael and Lucien become close as brothers, and Michael even saves the younger boy's life when his medical device malfunctions. Noting that Michael has a unique gift, his father figure (and clinic director) Dr. Emil Nicholas (Jared Harris) sends the boy to a "school for gifted children" in New York. Unfortunately, Michael definitely doesn't become an X-Man.
Eddie Brock investigates the Life Foundation
Decades later, in 2018, the Life Foundation — which specializes in bio-engineering and other genetic sciences — discovers an asteroid with a symbiotic lifeform (called Klyntar in the original Marvel Comics) still attached. Finding four samples, the Life Foundation's probe eventually crashes back to Earth after the interference of one of the symbiotes, with only three making it back to the United States. As it turns out, these aliens need flesh-and-blood hosts to survive, and humans only seem to survive the bonding process roughly half the time. Nevertheless, the Life Foundation is determined to see it through and use the symbiotes for their own purposes. Naturally, this leads San Francisco-based reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) to investigate the organization's unethical human trials. Unfortunately for Eddie, he ends up on the wrong side of the Foundation's wrath.
Fired from his job and broken up with by his ex-fiancée Anne (Michelle Williams), Eddie spends the next six months wallowing in his failure ... until he's approached by a repentant scientist who wants Eddie to expose what's going on at the Life Foundation. Eddie reluctantly agrees and discovers a woman who is being experimented on against her will. She dies during an escape attempt, but not before the symbiote — the only one left alive — attached to her transfers itself to Eddie. With the help of Anne's new boyfriend Dr. Dan Lewis (Reid Scott), Eddie discovers Venom.
Venom becomes the Lethal Protector
Now bonded with the Venom symbiote, Eddie learns that the symbiotes were scouting out other worlds to inhabit and eventually devour. Venom offers Eddie the chance to join him and live, and while Eddie isn't exactly elated about an alien invasion, the symbiote gives him incredible superhuman powers which he hopes to use to expose the Life Foundation. Along the way, Anne sees Eddie transform into Venom; after that, Dr. Lewis informs Eddie that his internal organs will deteriorate because of the alien's usage of his body. Even though Venom says the damage is reversible, Eddie is forcibly separated from the alien being — whose only weaknesses include high-pitched sounds and fire — just in time for Eddie to be captured by mercenaries hired by Life Foundation head Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed).
Unfortunately for Drake, Eddie no longer has Venom, but that doesn't matter for too long since the missing fourth symbiote, dubbed Riot, arrives in San Francisco to make a deal to bring other Klyntar to Earth. With no use for Eddie, Drake sends him to be executed, but he's soon saved by a Venom-possessed Anne. With a change of heart towards Earth, Venom and Eddie work together to stop Drake and Riot from bringing more symbiotes to the planet, resulting in the deaths of Riot and Drake. Telling Anne that Venom also died in the fight, Eddie returns to his former profession ... while also moonlighting with Venom as the city's Lethal Protector.
Carnage wreaks havoc on San Francisco
A few years after "Venom," the sequel subtitled "Let There Be Carnage" picks up where the first film left off. Anne and Dr. Lewis are now engaged, and Eddie continues to thrive in his career with Venom's help, particularly after he discovers where the bodies of serial killer Cletus Kasady's (played by Woody Harrelson) victims are hidden. But Kasady becomes an even bigger threat after ingesting a piece of the Venom symbiote which mixes with his own blood to create Carnage — a new alien serial killer who not only escapes prison, but breaks Cletus' lover Frances Barrison, aka Shriek (Naomie Harris), out of Ravencroft as well. Together, Carnage and Shriek rampage through San Francisco, hoping to draw Venom in. Except, our favorite odd couple isn't together anymore.
Though Venom has been content to this point with his life on Earth with Eddie, the limits his human host places on him eventually lead to a temporary break-up. Venom goes off soul-searching while Eddie is arrested by SFPD officer Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham), who believes Eddie is involved with Kasady's escape. Thankfully, Anne convinces Venom to return to Eddie and the pair battle Carnage and Shriek, which results in the deaths of the latter pair. With that, Venom and Eddie become fugitives from the law and take some time off. Oh, and in the process of all that, Mulligan somehow contracts his own symbiote, pushing him even closer to his comic book counterpart.
Michael Morbius turns himself into a Living Vampire
Sometime later on the opposite coast, a grown-up Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) is the director at Horizon Labs (a group that longtime "Spider-Man" readers will recognize) and eventually uses his resources to conduct some sketchy experiments out on international waters. Morbius uses the vampire bats he's collected to splice his DNA and develop a cure for his rare genetic disease. The good news is that it works and Morbius no longer requires the medical devices he once needed to stay alive. The bad news is that it also turns him into a "Living Vampire," so he kills and drinks from his entire crew. After moving past the bloodlust, Morbius covers his tracks and disappears, discovering that his new arsenal of abilities now includes super strength and speed, echolocation, and flight.
Upon returning to New York City, Morbius fights to use artificial blood to overcome his insatiable appetite. At the same time, the FBI begins an investigation into what happened to Morbius' crew. The FBI team is led by Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson) — a character in the original Marvel Comics who often allies himself with Spider-Man against the Living Vampire — who ultimately uncovers Morbius' involvement in the massacre. As all this is happening, Morbius is confronted by his brother Milo (now played by Matt Smith) who loses it after learning that Michael is cured, but he still isn't. Not long after, Milo takes Michael's vampiric cure.
Morbius becomes a fugitive after saving New York
Soon enough, Morbius is arrested by Stroud and taken to prison where Milo visits him and reveals that he is the one responsible for a recent murder. This places Milo in opposition to Morbius, who's taken steps to subdue his own homicidal urges. But Milo doesn't seem to share Morbius' restraint, and his sociopathic tendencies have doubled since becoming a living vampire himself. Realizing that he is the only one who can stop his brother, Morbius escapes his captivity, reunites with his colleague Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) and immediately starts working on a cure to stop Milo from ravaging the rest of New York City. As this is happening, Stroud and his team mistakenly believe that Morbius has succumbed to his bloodlust, unaware that Milo is the one behind the most recent killings.
In a fit of rage, Milo takes his frustrations with Morbius out on Dr. Nicholas and Martine, killing the former and mortally wounding the latter. While Martine is Morbius' fiancée in the original Marvel Comics, here they never have the chance to fully embrace their love. Martine dies (though returns later on as a vampire) and Morbius battles his surrogate brother to the death, but not before first injecting him with the antibody cure for vampirism. Rather than take the cure himself, Morbius flies off into the night and embraces his new life as a Living Vampire.
Venom hops into the Marvel Cinematic Universe
At the end of "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," which was released just two months before "Spider-Man: No Way Home," Eddie and the Venom symbiote are in a motel when they're suddenly transported into another world. This all happens after Eddie and Venom discuss how the symbiotes are all connected via a "hive knowledge" that spans across universes ... and multiverses, too. After the symbiote opens Eddie up to this knowledge, the two of them are instantly transported into another world — the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to be exact — where they watch The Daily Bugle newscast to see J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) exposing Peter Parker's identity as Spider-Man (the Tom Holland version, of course) to the entire world.
Since many versions of the Venom symbiote across the various Marvel universes (including the one seen in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3") know that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same, when Venom opens Eddie's mind up to the hive knowledge of the Klynar, Eddie learns the same thing, making him susceptible to Doctor Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) spell in "No Way Home" that brings villains with knowledge of Spidey's secret identity over into the MCU. While Venom and Spider-Man sadly don't interact in "No Way Home," Eddie and Venom appear again at the tropical hotel bar where they learn all about the Avengers. But when Strange's second spell is cast, they instantly disappear, leaving only a sliver of a symbiote behind.
Vulture crosses into the SSU
In probably the strangest twist in all of "Morbius," the multiverse opens to the SSU once again thanks to the events of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," where none other than "Spider-Man: Homecoming" villain Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) arrives mysteriously in a New York City prison cell. In "Homecoming," it's revealed that Toomes, who goes by the Vulture, knows Spider-Man's secret identity as well, and aims to keep it to himself to seek revenge later. Unfortunately, the MCU never touches on this idea again, and we're left wondering whatever became of the Vulture. Well, "Morbius" shows us. Upon finding himself in the SSU, Toomes is immediately released from prison (since he committed no crimes there) and set back out into the world, where he manages to create a new Vulture suit for himself.
At the very end of "Morbius," Vulture proposes a team-up between himself and the Living Vampire, blaming Spider-Man for his problems. Seemingly, Toomes is left stranded in Sony's "Spider-Man" Universe, possibly because Doctor Strange erases the Peter Parker-related memories of those still in the MCU and only sends visitors from other universes back to their home universes; meaning, the sorcerer doesn't know there's anyone who needs to be retrieved from another world.
A detour into the Spider-Verse
With Sony in control of the "Spider-Man" franchise, at least when it comes to feature films, they have a sort of creative freedom that Marvel Studios doesn't. While the MCU all takes place within a world that it has (mistakenly) designated Earth-616 — though, it's worth noting that it's (correctly) called Earth-199999 in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — the SSU takes place on Earth-688. With "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," the idea of countless Spider-people existing at the same time in different worlds became commonplace, and from there, "Across the Spider-Verse" bridges the gap between the SSU and the even larger Spider-Verse out there.
In 2023's "Across the Spider-Verse," Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) from the first two "Venom" films appears briefly when the villainous Spot (Jason Schwartzman) hops around different universes while amassing almost god-like power. The two of them exchange some odd looks, but the funniest part of the whole bit is that Mrs. Chen is completely unphased by the supervillain due to her casual run-ins with Venom, who has often protected the San Francisco store owner. How "Venom," "Morbius," and other features could connect to the greater Spider-Verse is currently unknown, but since it's also added the original Sam Raimi "Spider-Man" trilogy, Marc Webb's "Amazing Spider-Man" duology, and Jon Watts' MCU "Spider-Man" movies into its catalog, it seems like an even bigger crossover than "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is in the cards.
The Future of Sony's Spider-Man Universe
While 2022's "Morbius" might've been the last entry in Sony's "Spider-Man" Universe thus far, it's not the end to the ever-growing story. In 2023, trailers for both the upcoming "Kraven the Hunter" starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and "Madame Web" starring Dakota Johnson both dropped, revealing the studios' plans for more Spidey-adjacent adventures. Though the web-slinger himself has yet to appear in any of these productions (outside of that quick cameo in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," anyway), the SSU swings on. A third "Venom" feature is also in development, with Tom Hardy set to reprise his role from the first two films. Hopefully, Sony will figure out how to use Spider-Man in one of these upcoming projects.
Additionally, it should be noted that the upcoming Spider-Verse movie "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse" could also tie back into the SSU in some way, as could the MCU's impending "Avengers: Secret Wars." If "Secret Wars" takes at all from its original namesake (or the "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" episodes of the same name), we could see characters from the SSU or the MCU permanently swap universes and maybe even see Spider-Man (be it Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or Tom Holland) face off against these versions of Venom, Morbius, and others for the first time. With "Madame Web" scheduled for February 14, 2024, and "Kraven the Hunter" for August 30, 2024, Sony's Spider-Man Universe has nowhere to go but onward.