Venom Not in MCU

After months of debate over whether the Venom movie will be part of the MCU or not, we finally have a definitive answer. Avengers: Infinity War director Joe Russo confirmed that Venom will not be connected to the MCU.

I’m not sure whose decision it was, but it seems like Marvel would gladly include every character they possibly can, leading me to believe that it’s Sony who prefers to keep it separate.

That’s a bad decision on Sony’s part. I understand they want to have their own cinematic universe as every studio does, but do they actually believe they would be worse off if they worked with Marvel more? Marvel helped produce Spider-Man: Homecoming and it was the best received Spidey film since Spider-Man 2 in 2004.

They’re sharing Spidey with Marvel but don’t want to share the rest of Spidey’s supporting cast? Sony also benefits in this arrangement because they get access to MCU characters as well. Iron Man appeared in Homecoming and another Avenger will appear in the sequel. Other Spider-verse films would greatly benefit from guest appearances just as much.

It’s also a signal that Sony may not renew this Spidey partnership with Marvel once their five-film agreement is over. While I hope that’s not the case, I think they’d like to pull back his rights to theirs alone after the sequel in 2019. Money does talk too, and the financial success they see should change their thinking.

This is clearly a business decision made by Sony rather than a creative one, but it’s still the wrong one. Perhaps Sony hasn’t noticed, but Marvel Studios knows a little something about how to make money in the superhero genre. They’d be smart to work with them on every project.

If Venom turns out to be a disappointment (and I hope it doesn’t), maybe they’ll revisit connecting all their films to the MCU.