Sony Delays Production Of Spider-Man Spin-Off Silver And Black

Well, that was short-lived. Sony’s “Thelma & Louise” style kinda-superhero adventured has been put on the backburner, it seems. Silver and Black would have featured two longtime Spider-Man recurring characters, Black Cat and Silver Sable. This followed the announcement of the upcoming Venom film, starring Tom Hardy. But it was ahead of the Morbius announcement. This isn’t exactly the same as the delay that movie faced, late last year. In that case, the film’s location yielded requirements that took extra time to meet. In this case, the film was set to begin principal photography in March. However, this delay is for an unknown amount of time. The reason behind this isn’t as clear-cut, either, though some theories do exist.

On the one hand, Sony recently considered selling its major film assets. This, of course, isn’t unlike to the negotiations between Fox and Disney. It’s believed that the halt on this film is intended to last until a business decision is ultimately made. However, other theories loom large in the fandom, itself. Some argue that Sony is delaying the project until they see the response to Venom. This would make a fair amount of sense, as well. What burned Sony, in the past, was being overzealous to establish a connected universe of movies. This turned The Amazing Spider-Man 2 into a jumbled mess with far too much going on. And Sony isn’t the only company wrestling with this as Universal also learned this lesson the hard way.

The news of the delay was confirmed by the film’s director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, also the director of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger series. Bythewood responded on Twitter to the initial news break, made by That Hashtag Show. In her reply, she commented on the script still being worked on. So she’s at least using the downtime to be productive. However, the film was intended to hit theaters within less than a year of beginning production. And with that in mind, there was virtually no information. Bythewood is the only name attached to the project so far. No cast has been announced and the plot information was only a rumor.

Still working on the script. All about the script.

— Gina Prince-Bythewood (@GPBmadeit) February 24, 2018

Sony is looking to create a Spider-Man Villainverse, no doubt spearheaded by Venom, this October. However, it’s unclear what the future could hold for the project. With Silver and Black delayed, it’s possible Sony will abandon the idea altogether. But that may be for the better in the eyes of many fans who’d hope to see the characters join Spider-Man in the MCU. Meanwhile, there is the fear that such a deal would give Disney even more of a monopoly in the industry, and such a deal could ultimately not be worth it, in the long run. Only time will tell where this film and the entire shared universe project, will end up.