Will Sony Release Spider-Man's Eddie Brock/Venom Spinoff Outside Marvel Cinematic Universe?

After two movie franchises with different renditions of Peter Parker, this year Sony Pictures will release its newest version of Spider-Man, as the character, this time played by Tom Holland, who will be finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Captain America: Civil War. Before Spidey gets its own stand-alone movie next year, Sony has announced another Marvel project: a Venom movie starring possibly Eddie Brock.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony has already hired some of the key players behind the scenes for the Venom spinoff, which is set to become its own franchise separated from the Spidey one. The people already behind the project include Dante Harper, who is currently writing the screenplay, and Spider-Man veteran producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach.

This will be the first time Venom stars in its own stand-alone movie, but the character, one of Spidey's main nemesis alongside Green Goblin, has in fact appeared on the big screen before. Back in 2007, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 had Topher Grace playing the character, but considering the film had two other villains (the New Goblin and the Sandman),he was kind of lost in the crowd.

In the comic books, the character, a kind of symbiotic leech and Spider-Man opposite that was first introduced to Marvel in 1988, has gone from a main villain to an antihero-like figure, though it's unclear how it will appear on the upcoming film.

Inverse reports that, while Sony made a deal with Disney to co-produce and share profits of future Spider-Man appearances on the big screen, Venom was obviously not involved in this contract, and there had been talk of a stand-alone film for quite some time.

In fact, before Sony and Disney finally reached an agreement, there were rumors that Sony was pursuing its own Suicide Squad-like property with Sinister Six, a film that would have starred the biggest Spidey enemies joining forces for the greater evil.

If the franchise proved successful, it would make sense that Sony pursued the project of a bigger film with more Spider-Man villains, though how that would work with the Disney deal remains unclear.