Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, award-winning producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, are supposedly working on a project that will utilize Sony’s vast catalogue of Marvel characters. While we don’t have any real news as to what this secretive project is all about, it’s safe to say that it is related in some capacity to Lord and Miller’s success with Into the Spider-Verse. Some assume the comedic duo are working on an animated TV universe. Others say it’s going to be a live-action series of shows.
As the anticipation builds, check out ten ideas that fans would love to see in Lord and Miller’s Spider-project. From the funny to downright strange, there’s so much for Lord and Miller to work with, and hopefully they see the potential in all these stories and characters.
10 More Miles Morales, Please
You can’t have a Spider-Man-centric Sony-verse and not have Miles Morales in it in some way, shape, or form. Into The Spider-Verse is the reason Lord and Miller have been given this sandbox to play with, so it’s only right that Miles is given something to do in it.
Maybe it’s time to finally cast someone to play a live-action Miles Morales. Maybe that live-action version of Miles resides in one of the many multiverses we encountered in Into The Spider-Verse. Either way, it would be cool to see Lord and Miller incorporate the star of their extremely successful movie in their new TV universe in creative ways.
9 Kraven the Hunter
Kraven the Hunter has been a favorite among Spider-Man fans for a very long time. Whenever news of a new Spider-Man movie comes around, the buzz and anticipation for a Kraven announcement starts to build… before it’s squashed all over again. Like his most prized prey, Kraven truly is one of the most elusive characters to never make it to a live-action screen. But all that could change with Lord and Miller’s new Marvel-Sony TV project.
While it’ll be hard to center a show around a villainous Kraven, an antihero who hunts other villains sounds like something that could work. If that’s deviating too much from the source material, maybe have Kraven finally show up in one of the (few?) projects they’re developing with Sony’s arsenal of characters.
8 Interdimensional Adventures
At the end of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, we were teased with the opening of a new portal, signaling that Miles Morales’ interdimensional adventures are far from over. While those adventures are bound to be explored in the inevitable Into the Spider-Verse sequel, who’s to say Lord and Miller can’t throw other Marvel-Sony characters into interdimensional pandemonium for our benefit?
With so many great characters to choose from, a show centered on adventures through the multiverse could be just what Sony needs to hold its own against the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
7 A Peter B. Parker Sitcom
He’s voiced by Jake Johnson and wears sweatpants on rescue missions. Peter B. Parker, or the true Spider-Man according to most fans, is a sitcom waiting to happen. We’re so accustomed to seeing a younger Spider-Man whip and whiz his way through life, adventures, and bad guys. A sitcom centered on an older, out of shape Spider-Man trying to get back in the game would be downright (wait for it)... amazing.
Like any adult, life is a complicated maze for Peter B. Parker. Unlike any adult, he also needs to use his superpowers to constantly keep the city safe from crazed lunatics with horrible agendas. Throw Lord and Miller’s sense of humor into the mix and we’ve got ourselves a top-notch superhero sitcom!
6 The Sinister Six
Sony Pictures and the people who run it have been trying to get a Sinister Six movie off the ground for the longest time now. Plans for the band of baddies were brewing even before Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man supposed quadrology fell apart. The studio failed again with Andrew Garfield’s iteration of the web-slinger before Marvel Studios stepped in to reboot the character all over again.
While it’s unclear how a group of villains are going to headline a show, if there’s anyone who can crack the code, it’s the team of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord. Maybe instead of a movie, what the Sinister Six really need is a miniseries to tell their story… and this Sony-Marvel universe seems like the perfect place to do it.
5 A Looney-Tunes-Style Spider-Ham Show
Who can deny that Spider-Ham is one of the greatest characters to ever grace a superhero flick? As psychedelic as Into the Spider-Verse is, watching a pig in a Spider-Man costume fight bad guys with a giant mallet was truly the crazy icing on an already-bizarre cake.
What we need now is a full-blown animated series - like the Looney Tunes or Scooby-Doo - featuring Peter Porker and his alter-ego, Spider-Ham, fighting crime and saving the world. A Spider-Ham show set in the world of anthropomorphic animals with superpowers sounds like the perfect Saturday morning cartoon.
4 Peni Parker: Anime
Aside from orchestrating the Umbrella Academy, former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way is also famous for creating one of the most bizarre alternative versions of Spider-Man; Peni Parker and her mech-suit, the SP//dr. The suit, which once belonged to her late father, is partially controlled by a sentient radioactive spider that shares a psychic link with SP//dr’s pilot.
If that doesn’t sound like the basis of a fantastic anime, it’s hard to say what does. Peni Parker has had some amazing adventures alongside the likes of Spider-Ham in the comics. It would only make sense to create a shared universe where both Ham and Peni can crossover into each other’s realities from time to time.
3 Spider-Gwen
At the end of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, we’re given a glimpse into a possible sequel scenario; the return of Spider-Gwen through a glitch in the multiverse. While Sony Pictures has all but confirmed a Spider-Gwen spin-off, there’s so much that happens in Spider-Verse that we just don’t see. There’s so much content and the story that happens in between the plot that is worth showing.
If Lord and Miller are working on their own “shared universe”, it needs to have Spider-Gwen in it, in a big way. A series revolving around Gwen Stacey and her adventures as an alternate Spider-Man of sorts might explain why her approach to crime-fighting is so different from Peter Parker’s.
2 Bridging the Sony - MCU Gap
Spider-Man may have left the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a result of poor negotiations between studios, but that doesn’t mean he was never in the MCU to begin with. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is, inherently, an Avenger. While it’s going to be difficult for movies on both sides to move forward without tip-toeing around Spidey’s absence, a secondary shared universe could be a great way to finally bridge the Sony - MCU gap without actually changing anything.
If any of the characters who have interacted with Spider-Man show up in Lord and Miller’s stories, then everyone from both universes instantly become part of a massive, albeit segmented, tapestry. Into the Spider-Verse would technically become a part of the MCU and vice versa by mere proximity to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
1 Spider-Man Noir
“Nicolas Cage as a gritty black-and-white Spider-Man from the 20s” sounds like absolute insanity and genuine genius all at the same time. Spider-Man Noir needs his own series. It needs to be a period piece. It could be about Spider-Man solving crimes and cracking codes in the thick of night, all while swinging through downtown New York.
No matter what plans Lord and Miller have when it comes to their Sony-Marvel TV universe, the duo’s unique sense of comedy and creativity is enough to make the project a special one. Bringing Spider-Man Noir back for a series of gritty adventures could be weirdly funny and intriguing enough to get people truly hooked onto this new Spider-Man universe.