Ash vs Evil Dead co-creator and Watchmen and The Leftovers executive producer Tom Spezialy is set to act as the showrunner on Sony's live-action Marvel series Silk, under his overall deal with Amazon Studios, as per a report from Deadline. As the only one of the 'Big Five' studios that don't operate an in-house streaming service, Sony are forced to do things the old fashioned way and negotiate deals with outside parites, and Silk looks as though it could be the first episodic effort in the company's shared superhero universe.
Atypical writer Lauren Moon penned the comic book adaptation and will also serve as an executive producer alongside Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who have been tasked with overseeing the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters' expansion into both live-action and animated television, while Spider-Man steward and Sony veteran Amy Pascal is also on board.
Silk is the alter ego of Cindy Moon, who only made her debut in April 2014, but has already become a firm fan favorite among Marvel Comics readers. An interesting note is that the role has already been played by Tiffany Espensen in Kevin Feige's Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the actress making a brief appearances in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War. The first trailer for Sony's Morbius featured a surprise cameo from Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes, so there's a precedent for actors crossing the MCU/SPUMC divide, although there's every chance the part will be recast.
The SPUMC might still only be one movie old, but Silk is just the latest addition to an increasingly jam-packed slate. Andy Serkis' Venom: Let There Be Carnage will be bringing Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock back to our screens in September, with Jared Leto starring as the title antihero in January 2022's Morbius, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson was recently tapped to headline J.C. Chandor's Kraven the Hunter, and that's without even mentioning the mystery project being worked on by Olivia Wilde, which may or may not be Spider-Woman.
Sony's unique arrangement with Marvel that allows Tom Hollland to play Spider-Man under the Disney umbrella clearly hasn't affected the studio's ambitious plans to launch an interconnected mythology of their own, with the news that Silk has landed a showrunner signaling the plans to move into episodic television are moving full steam ahead.