It's easy to forget how big of a deal Spider-Man is. Especially, it seems, for Sony Pictures, which keeps forgetting that one simple fact. And then remembering.

As we wake up here on a Monday morning after what appears to be a three-year bender culminated by the paltry theatrical receipts of Kraven the Hunter, Sony Pictures appears to be (once again) coming to terms with what it actually owns. It owns the exclusive movie rights to Marvel's Spider-Man as well as 900+ associated characters, but it didn't buy the rights to 900+ standalone Marvel characters; it bought Spider-Man, and whatever came with it. Somehow, they forgot that.

You won't believe it, but they did.

“We don’t really think of our 900 characters as the Spidey-verse,” Sony Pictures' motion picture group president Sanford Panitch told Variety in 2021. "We have a Marvel universe. The volume of characters we have — you know, wait until you see this next Venom. You don’t miss Spider-Man."

As it turns out, everyone missed Spider-Man.

According to Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro, the studio has halted every Spider-Verse project that isn't starring Spider-Man or a variant edition of the character, and that a "reset" is in store. If true, that snuffs out long-gestating solo movies for the Sinister Six, Nightwatch, Jackpot, El Muerto, the Hypno-Hustler, Mysterio, and even an Aunt May movie. But what it leaves behind - and what fans have repeatedly demonstrated through moviegoing habits - is what matters. Sony needs to stop thinking of them as being pigeon-holed into just the Spider-Man business and realize they're fortunate to have the Spider-Man business. Why?

The Spider-Verse is the gift looking them right in the mouth. 

Sony needs to settle into the Spider-Verse

Much in the same way that Batman has become the flagship character (and overall franchise) of DC, Sony owns the movie rights to Spider-Man - but also all of the associated Spider-Men, Spider-Women, and Spider-people. And has been amply shown in the success of the two Spider-Verse animated movies and the live-action Spider-Man: Far From Home, there's a deep bench of Parkers and adjacent arachnid-folk for Sony to pull from.

Here's what has been announced that is part of Sony's Spider-Verse:

• Spider-Noir, 8 issue live-action series starring Nicolas Cage for MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video
• A fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, co-produced with Marvel Studios
• Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the third movie in the Spider-Verse animated movie series
• An as-yet-untitled Spider-Women movie as part of the Spider-Verse animated movie series

Now think of all the Spider-Men and Spider-Women in the Spider-Verse movies and even Spider-Man: Far From Home you'd like to see in their own thing. Imagine Tom Hardy's Venom returning for a Civil War-esque movie with Spider-Man - maybe even if its not Tom Holland, it's Toby Maguire or Andrew Garfield. How about the Spider-dad of the Spider-Verse movies in his own animated movie. Imagine an animated/live-action hybrid crossover building on Donald Glover's appearance in the second Spider-Verse movie, that is a modern-day superhero Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

This is before we even talk about a live-action Miles Morales Spider-Man movie. (He can't stay as a purely animated hero forever.)

This doesn't mean spinoff movies for other associated characters with 'Spider-' in their name doesn't work, but it means they need to be established and well-received before they go that far. It took decades and several ultra-successful Joker portrayals for the idea of a live-action Joker movie to work. Heck, even Disney realized pretty quick that spinoffs focusing on the villains doesn't quite work. 

Like Spider-Man's erstwhile adversary J. Jonah Jameson, Sony needs someone to get them more Spider-Man pictures. But no, this doesn't mean you should do a J. Jonah Jameson movie without Spider-Man in it.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.