Sony Pictures is hitting the reset button on its entire live-action Spider-Man universe, with CEO Tom Rothman confirming a complete reboot that will wipe the slate clean of current stars like Tom Hardy and Dakota Johnson.
In a bombshell interview on The Town podcast, Rothman revealed Sony's plan to start fresh with all-new actors for upcoming Marvel projects, signaling the end of the current era that includes the Venom franchise and recent flops like Madame Web.
"We're going back to the drawing board," Rothman told host Matthew Belloni when pressed about the future of Sony's Marvel universe. "It's time for new faces, new stories, and a completely fresh approach."
The CEO's comments suggest that Tom Hardy's Venom, Jared Leto's Morbius, and Dakota Johnson's Madame Web won't return in future films, though Sony's history of surprise crossovers (remember No Way Home's multiverse madness?) means nothing is completely off the table.
Tom Hardy's Venom era appears to be ending as Sony reboots its entire Marvel universe. Courtesy Sony Pictures
Rothman dropped a fascinating insight about his strategy: "Sometimes you need to make audiences miss a character. It's like dating—absence makes the heart grow fonder." This comes despite Sony releasing three Marvel movies in 2024 alone, contradicting his own scarcity principle.
The reboot announcement follows a brutal stretch for Sony's Marvel output. Since 2018, the studio has released six live-action films based on Spider-Man characters—Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom: The Last Dance—with not a single "fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes among them.
"We've learned from our recent projects," Rothman acknowledged, referencing the critical failures. "The audience is telling us something, and we're listening."
The timing is particularly interesting given Sony's upcoming projects. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31, 2025) will still feature Tom Holland's Peter Parker alongside MCU veterans Mark Ruffalo and Jon Bernthal, suggesting the reboot will focus on Sony's standalone universe rather than the MCU-collaboration films.
Tom Holland's Spider-Man will continue in MCU collaborations, but Sony's standalone universe gets a complete overhaul. Matt Kennedy/MARVEL
Adding to the confusion: Sony is simultaneously developing Spider-Noir, a live-action TV series starring Nicolas Cage as a 1930s detective version of Spider-Man, in collaboration with Amazon MGM. Whether this project connects to the rebooted universe remains unclear.
The move represents a dramatic course correction for Sony, which has held Spider-Man theatrical rights since 1999. After the success of Sam Raimi's trilogy and the mixed results of Andrew Garfield's films, Sony partnered with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the MCU—a relationship that continues to thrive even as Sony's standalone universe struggles.
With superhero fatigue affecting box office returns across the industry, Sony's complete reboot represents one of the most aggressive responses yet to declining audience interest. The question now: Can a fresh start with all-new actors revive Sony's Spider-Verse, or is this too little, too late?
