Report: Sony is planning a SILK spinoff for their Spideyless-verse

You can’t say Sony isn’t trying to keep their foot firmly planted in the superhero blockbuster space. After Amazing Spider-Man 2 flailed and Amy Pascal and company basically gave up on the idea of making Spider-Man work again without the help of Marvel Studios, they’ve continued to try and brainstorm ways to keep those big bucks flowing.

This October will see their first attempt at it in Venom, the Tom Hardy-starring solo launch of the most popular spin-off in the Spidey lexicon. It’s still really unclear what that film’s connections are to the Spider-Man that’s popped up in the MCU, but still is distributed by Sony. Right now, if I had to guess, it’s probably a Marvel Television like thing, where their films will react and lightly hint at characters and events going on across the street, but you’ll never see the opposite. There have been rumors of a cameo at least…we’ll find out this Fall.

But what’s after that? Well, Silver and Black, the film that was supposed to center on Silver Sable and Black Cat has been taken off of the studio’s calendar altogether, with its director, Gina Prince-Bythewood basically saying they’re starting over from scratch:

With Silver and Black, when you’re doing a film of that magnitude, it’s gotta be right. And if it’s not right, we actually collectively decided to go back to the drawing board and start over. That’s gonna take time. So obviously, I’d love to be shooting right now, but to be shooting something that I know is not as good as it can be, I’m not the type that wants to shoot something you’re rewriting, as you’re shooting. So, we have to get the script right, and I’m okay to wait. I may be shooting something before that, but it really is just get the script right before we go on that journey.

So, the originally planned second film is now off the table, and according to The Wrap, Pascal and company have moved on to another heroine in the Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos-created Silk. An excitingly diverse choice, Silk is the alter-ego for Cindy Moon, a Korean-American woman who was bit by the same radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker, a fun bit of “this is the story you weren’t aware of, while you were following the other guy”. It could make for a good feature….

….provided it actually happens. With Sony, you never really know. According to that same report, the studio is also eyeing features centered on Morbius (because vampires) and Nightwatch (because Spawn?). Of these, Silk actually sounds like the most sensible approach to being able to still have a Spidey-like film, but do it with a totally different protagonist. It could be a graceful solution to Sony’s needs, again, if it happens.

In the meantime, Into the Spider-Verse looks killer.