Venom, Venom 2, Morbius, Madame Web, Venom 3, and Kraven are the six live-action movies in the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU) that have come out in the past six years. None of them are very good. Some of them are downright terrible, or even all of them, depending on who you ask.
What I’m getting at is that Sony can’t figure out how to tell good Spider-Man stories. The MCU is the only reason Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies work. Marvel’s helping hand made it easy for Sony to deliver blockbuster successes with the MCU’s Spider-Man films. Yes, including Peter Parker in the growing roster of Avengers definitely helped Marvel, too. But remove Spidey, and the MCU would still work. Well, you know, after Marvel fixes its own issues with story quality in the most recent movies and series.
I’ve been saying this in one form or another for a while now, usually in connection with Spider-Man 4 plot leaks. I had to repeat all this before I mentioned the latest Spider-Man 4 story rumor. Apparently, the script they had so far is so bad that Sony might have to scrap it completely and rewrite it from scratch.
Before I tell you why this is my favorite Spider-Man 4 rumor so far, I have to warn you that big spoilers might follow.
Well-known Marvel insider MyTimeToShineHello dropped the Spider-Man 4 story tidbit on X, per ComicBookMovie.
The scooper said that the most recent version of the script will have to undergo significant rewrites. It might be scrapped altogether. The leaker said Tom Holland likes the story, but Marvel chief Kevin Feige doesn’t. They are “now rewriting it and changing everything. The script isn’t ready yet and won’t be for a while.”
If the information is accurate, we might not get a Spider-Man 4 release date announcement for a while. I’ll also remind you of recent rumors that Sony and Marvel postponed the Spider-Man 4 premiere from July 2026 to Christmas 2026. The rumored delay isn’t about the script but rather the prospect of competing with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Nolan’s picture drops in July 2026, and both Tom Holland and Zendaya are included in the cast of A-list stars.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard the Spider-Man 4 story has been a source of tension between Sony and Marvel. Previous reports said that Sony wants the sequel to be as big as No Way Home, while Marvel wants a street-level story.
Sony’s story would have Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning, which would be a big waste of cameos if you ask me. These two should appear in Secret Wars to fight alongside the Avengers against Doctor Doom.
More recently, we’ve heard wilder claims about the Spider-Man 4 story. Venom (Tom Hardy), Daredevil (Charlie Cox), and Ghost Rider might appear in the film. They’d face plenty of villains, including Knull (Andy Serkis) and Mephisto. Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) would also have a cameo.
If any of that is true, Spider-Man 4 could be just as massive as Avengers 5 and Avengers 6. I’m not saying Spider-Man 4 shouldn’t have such big ambitions. I’m just worried about the quality of the story, especially after what has just happened in No Way Home.
That’s why I hope MyTimeToShineHello’s new leak is accurate. If Kevin Feige doesn’t like the story, that’s probably a good reason to come up with a different one. Then again, I can’t help but wonder what the current script looks like.
When Tom Holland confirmed that Spider-Man 4 would hit production next summer, he said he had read a great draft of the script. These teasers dropped at a time when we still expected Spider-Man 4 to premiere in July 2026.
Finally, I’ll also remind you of rumors that say Sony has issues with the script of another beloved Spider-Man property, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The Spider-Verse animated movies aren’t technically part of the SSU, but they could be. They are the only Sony Spider-Man projects outside the MCU that have seen great receptions and financial success.
There’s no release date for the final installment in the trilogy, as rumors said Sony hasn’t decided on the story’s ending. I said at the time that the quality of Beyond the Spider-Verse is even more important than Spider-Man 4 for me. The larger MCU storyline can prop up the latter, whereas the former is on its own.
What I’m getting at is that Sony is clearly dealing with a Spider-Man quality issue. I sure hope Spider-Man 4 and Beyond the Spider-Verse will be saved.
