Sony Pictures have updated the release dates for seven upcoming films across 2022, 2023, and 2024, including a currently untitled Spider-Man spin-off. Sony is developing several films focused on characters related to the Marvel Comics superhero. Kraven the Hunter, a film focused on the titular Spider-Man villain, is currently in production, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson taking on the lead role.
Sony Pictures is enjoying many successful theatrical releases following the wider reopening of theatres following closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While films like Morbius saw little success at the box office, the studio has seen a handful of successful releases, such as Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and the Marvel Studios co-production Spider-Man: No Way Home, which would become the highest-performing domestically released film of 2021, overtaking competition from both Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. While Sony Pictures higher-ups claimed the Venom sequel's success helped releases like Top Gun: Maverick, the studio has recently reshuffled its slate of releases.
Sony Pictures announced some reshuffling of release dates and confirmed several projects set to release between 2022 and 2024. The studio gave five films different release dates, and they added two new films to Sony's release calendar. The latest release dates are as follows:
- Tom Hanks and Tom Forster's A Man Called Otto's release was moved up to December 14th, 2022
- George Tillman Jr.'s untitled George Foreman biopic was moved up to March 3st, 2023
- The Sam Raimi-produced sci-fi drama 65 from April 14th, 2023, to April 28th
- Madame Webb Spider-Man spin-off moved from July 7th, 2023, to October 6th
- A currently untitled Spider-Man spin-off was also delayed from October 6th, 2023, to June 7th, 2024
- The Russell Crowe-led supernatural thriller The Pope's Exorcist will release on April 7th, 2023
- The horror sequel Insidious 5 releases July 7th, 2023
Production on Madame Webb began in July, with recent images taken from the film's set in Boston offering fans insight into where some sequences from the upcoming Spider-Man spin-off will take place. Starring Dakota Johnson, images from the set in July featured props such as payphones, advertisements for Beyonce's debut album, "Dangerously In Love," and various newspaper boxes, suggesting that the film would be set in the early 2000s. Alongside Johnson's Madame Webb, Taylor-Johnson's Kraven the Hunter, and the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse, a film centered on minor Spider-Man character El Muerto was announced in 2022 during CinemaCon, with Bad Bunny being cast in the lead role, further expanding Sony's Spider-Man franchise.
While Morbius became a much-mocked box-office flop, Sony Pictures has had several successes as audiences returned to theatres with their key franchises, allowing the studio to make impressive box-office earnings in 2021. With these recent successes and a former Marvel attorney suggesting the Sony/Marvel deal will last amidst uncertainty about the character's shared cinematic future, Sony remains confident in their theatrical releases, especially for their major franchises. However, with multiple films being pushed back for currently unspecified reasons and their release date seeing numerous adjustments, it is clear that the studio is also wary to avoid any more theatrical missteps.