When it was announced that Sony and Marvel Studios would be teaming up for a new Spider-Man film, one of my first questions was, “So what happens to Drew Goddard?” The Cabin in the Woods director attached himself to a few projects after the success of that horror film, including the space-set thriller The Martian, but he left that movie when he was offered the chance to take the helm of Sony’s Sinister Six, a proposed spinoff of it’s The Amazing Spider-Man franchise that would focus on the villains.

With Sony and Marvel teaming up on a new Spider-Man film starring a new Spider-Man, it was unclear what was going to happen to The Sinister Six as well as Sony’s other in-development spinoffs, which includes Venom to be directed by Alex Kurtzman. Luckily, as more details begin to emerge about the deal between Sony and Marvel that led to this unprecedented “loan” of the character, some light has been shed on Sony’s Spider-Man spinoffs.

sinister-six

Per Variety, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been cancelled altogether, but Sony is still moving forward with Sinister Six, Venom, and a film featuring female characters from the Spider-Man universe. The first two had been confirmed by Sony some time ago, but we had only heard rumors about the female-centric Spidey movie last fall, as Sony began brainstorming ways to keep their golden goose alive following the disappointment of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Variety’s report doesn’t clarify whether Goddard and/or Kurtzman are still attached to their spinoff movies, but they do say that Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is not expected to be creatively involved in these films. He’ll co-produce the new Spider-Man movie coming in 2017, but remember, Sony still owns this property and it looks like they’re going to try and go it alone when it comes to their planned inter-connected universe.

the-amazing-spider-man-2-paul-giamatti-rhino
Image via Sony

When the Marvel/Sony deal was announced, it was revealed that we could also expect to see some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters appear in the Spider-Man films, so one has to wonder if this extends to the spinoffs. Goddard actually has experience with Marvel as he was initially set as the writer, director, and showrunner of the Netflix series Daredevil before departing a few months before production was to begin. The official reason was that the show conflicted with his duties on Sinister Six, but obviously that wasn’t the case, and rumors swirled that his creative aspirations for the series weren’t in line with the folks at Marvel TV. He’s an incredibly talented guy, so here’s hoping this new deal provides another opportunity for Goddard to work with Marvel—specifically Feige and the film production side of the studio.

While Sony and Marvel are no doubt focused on casting their new Spider-Man at the moment, I’m very curious to see how these spinoffs develop. Will Sony wait until the new Spider-Man is first established in his own film in 2017, or will they go ahead and start moving forward with this other side of the Spidey universe ahead of time? And what’s the nature of Goddard and Kurtzman’s involvement going forward? This new report almost raises more questions than it answers, but I imagine things will become clearer fairly soon.

For more on the Sony/Marvel deal, peruse the links below: