We don’t have a title or release date for Spider-Man 4. But we know for sure that Marvel and Sony are working on it. Both studios confirmed it at the No Way Home premiere, with Kevin Feige leaving no room for interpretation. But what if the next Marvel-Sony co-production isn’t Spider-Man 4? Rumors indicate that Marvel wants Spider-Woman to join the MCU, and it might happen before the next big Tom Holland project.
Separately, we’ve just learned of a delay for an untitled Sony/Marvel project. We recently speculated it could be the Spider-Man 4 sequel.
Before we can proceed, we’ll warn you that some spoilers might follow.
The Spider-Man 4 release date
During press interviews ahead of the Spider-Man: No Way Home release, Marvel and Sony were willing to confirm that Spider-Man 4 is in the works. But they never mentioned a timeline for this production. Sony also confirmed that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker would appear in a different MCU crossover movie without disclosing the title.
After Comic-Con and the D23 Expo, we have a pretty good idea of what’s coming next in MCU Phases 4, 5, and 6. And there are plenty of dates to accommodate Spider-Man and Spider-Woman, assuming Marvel and Sony will partner on the latter.
A few weeks ago, a rumor claimed that an “Untitled Sony/Marvel Universe film is coming out 6/7/24.” At the time, we speculated this could only be the Spider-Man 4 sequel fans are dying to see.
But that was before a new Spider-Woman rumor dropped.
Before we look at the rumor, we’ll note Deadline’s Friday report that has this little gem in it:
And the untitled Sony/Marvel movie will now go on July 12, 2024 instead of June 7, 2024.
The MCU roadmap gives us at least a few places where Tom Holland’s Peter Parker can show up next. Fantastic Four, Avengers 5, and Avengers 6 are all possibilities. Thunderbolts is another big crossover in the MCU, although we don’t necessarily expect Spider-Man to be part of that.
The point is that we might not need a Spider-Man 4 film before Holland’s next MCU appearance.
Will Spider-Woman be released before Spider-Man 4?
This brings us to a new rumor from the MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit about the Marvel-Sony relationship.
The report says that Marvel wanted Sony to stay away from three Spider-Man characters that Sony controls. These are Kraven, Black Cat, and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew):
Ryan Coogler had really wanted to use Kraven in the first Black Panther film, and Marvel even tried to work out a tit-for-tat with them in order to use the character. Marvel fought hard to get Coogler access to the character for the sequel, they also fought hard to quietly kill Sony’s Black Cat-Silver Sable project. More than anything though, they wanted to be able to introduce Jessica Drew in their 616 universe and use her in their new lineup of Avengers.
Furthermore, the report claims these negotiations happened about three years ago. Marvel might have gotten their Spider-Woman out of the deal:
At the time of the discussions, Sony held the rights to Jessica Drew while Marvel held the rights to Julia Carpenter, a different version of the Spider-Woman character who later takes on the mantle of Madame Web. Marvel tried very hard to convince Sony to swap the rights on those two characters. We believe they were successful as when the Madame Web movie was announced it seemed like it was replacing the previously announced Spider-Woman one.
However, at this point, we are unsure. But we do know that one of Marvel’s highest priorities in their negotiations with Sony, aside from making sure that they were happy with how the character of Spider-Man would be handled, was to make sure that they had similar control over Jessica Drew. Considering those negotiations were almost 3 years ago now, we would imagine that we could probably hear about Jessica Drew’s inclusion in a project sooner rather than later.
What if we know who Marvel’s Spider-Woman is?
If Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew sounds familiar when talking about upcoming MCU adventures, that’s because we already discussed her not too long ago.
Specifically, a rumor said that Emilia Clarke will play Veranke in the upcoming Secret Invasion series. That’s the TV show that hits Disney Plus next year. At the time, we explained that Veranke is a Skrull princess who orchestrates the Earth invasion. At one point, she takes over the Spider-Woman identity.
We also noted that the rumor didn’t necessarily make sense, as Sony controls the rights for Spider-Woman. But in light of this new report, anything is possible.
Does that mean Emilia Clarke will masquerade as Marvel’s Spider-Woman? Not so fast! We have conflicting reports about Clarke’s character. Instead of Veranke, Clarke might play G’iah, a different Skrull.
That said, all these reports certainly suggest that Veranke might show up in the MCU sooner than later, especially if Marvel adds a Spider-Woman version to its roster of heroes. And assuming Marvel keeps these comic storylines in place. But there might also be a The Amazing Spider-Man 3, which we don’t know if it will come out.
More Marvel coverage: For more MCU news, visit our Marvel guide.
