into the spider-verse

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Sony could spin off ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ into TV shows

There's a lot of ground it could cover.

 

Michelle Jaworski

Internet Culture

Posted on Jan 9, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 9:53 pm CDT

The future of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is bright: It’s a hit with both audiences and critics alike (and the filmmakers have been open about their process), it just won a Golden Globe, and the animation has taken the medium to the next level. It comes as little surprise that there are already at least two Spider-Verse films already in the works, but there might be even more of the Spider-Verse universe to look forward to in another medium.

The reveal about Sony’s newest plans for the Spider-Verse arrives on the tail end of a New York Times profile of Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida as it highlights the company’s future projects. Some of those projects include films starring Morbius and standalone films starring Black Cat and Silver Sable; since the profile went online, a Venom sequel has gone into development. But according to the Times, Sony is also looking at creating TV shows starring some of the characters who first appeared in Into the Spider-Verse.

Granted, nothing may ultimately come of Sony’s early exploration of a Spider-Verse-adjacent TV show, and Sony hasn’t given any indication of which characters it might consider. But the film’s Spider-trio of Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker and SP//dr, and Spider-Ham could easily each lead their own TV show. We don’t know much about each of them apart from the similarities of their origin stories to Miles, Gwen, and Peter B. Parker, and any of them could play into or offer a vastly different take of genres we’ve seen before.

Spider-Man Noir could offer a more serious Spider-Man or lean into the campiness of the character while playing it straight. Peni Parker’s futuristic world can expand on what kind of technology she has at her disposal. Spider-Ham can fill the Looney Tunes-shaped hole in our hearts but could also end up being even darker when it lands.

And that’s not even including the two very different Spider-People who showed up in the end credits to hilarious effect.

If Sony were to ever open up the window to other Spider-People (whether they get their first introduction via a TV show or a Spider-Verse sequel or spinoff), the possibilities would be endless. In various comics over the years, there has been an Elizabethan Spider-Man, a zombie Spider-Man, Spider-Monkey, Spider-Boy (Jessica Drew’s son in the comics), a Spider-Man from 2211 named Max Borne, a werewolf Spider-Man, a Cyborg Spider-Man, and two separate universes where Aunt May and Uncle Ben became Spider-People instead. And that’s just a small sampling of what Sony could potentially tap into now that it’s opened up the Spider-Verse.

H/T IGN

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*First Published: Jan 9, 2019, 10:38 am CST