Sony Adds Two Mystery Marvel Movie Release Dates For 2023

Sony has added two new slots in their 2023 release date calendar, both dedicated to unnamed Sony/Marvel Universe films. Sony originally swooped in to pick up ownership for the rights to Spider-Man and 900 other related Marvel characters in the 1990s, at the same time 20^th Century Fox picked up rights for ­The X-Men and The Fantastic Four. While Disney’s Marvel Studios has since managed to reacquire the rights for the latter in their 2019 merger, Sony has held tightly onto the rights for Spidey and their other Marvel characters, only allowing everyone’s favorite web-slinger to appear in the MCU through a series of landmark negotiations and deal-making.

With Sony allowing Tom Holland’s iteration of Spider-Man to be deeply tied up in the intricate workings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio set to work in 2016 to bring about their own shared universe commencing with 2016’s Venom. The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, just released earlier this month, and Sony is already surging ahead with their plans for their Spider-Man Universe, with both Morbius and Kraven the Hunter each slated for respective January 2022 and 2023 release dates. Adding to this is their critically acclaimed animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse series, the second of which is also currently set to be released in October 2022.

Most recently, Sony has made some waves by reworking their domestic release calendar to make way for even more Marvel-centric projects. While they have shuffled the release dates around for Michael B. Jordan’s A Journal for Jordan, giving it a 2021 Christmas release, and have also pushed back the release date of the film adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s novel, The Nightingale, the most striking changes are the addition of two new untitled Sony/Marvel movies in 2023. In addition to Kraven the Hunter’s existing January 2023 slot, two mystery films have been announced for June 23 and October 6^th of that year.

The first thing fans will be asking, of course, is which rumored projects will be taking these coveted release dates. Over recent years, several Marvel projects have been discussed and are all at various stages of development, including long-stagnating plans for a Sinister Six movie. One project that may be among the most likely to take one of those two slots is the film slated to be helmed by Olivia Wilde and is believed to feature Spider-Woman. While Sony has yet to officially confirm that a Spider-Woman film is in development, in 2020, Wilde herself retweeted reports of her being signed to direct a Sony/Marvel film with a telling spider emoji.

Another likely candidate may not be another live-action film, but the all-female-centric animated Into the Spider-Verse spinoff, Spider-Women. Set to feature three generations of female Spider characters, the film is expected to include Spider-Gwen, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), and Cindy Moon (Silk), and is slated to be penned by Maleficent: Mistress of Evil screenwriter, Bek Smith. Earlier last year, however, Spider-Gwen star Hailee Steinfeld admitted that she had not yet heard any further details on the planned spinoff. Of course, much may have changed since then, and with next year’s Into the Spider-Verse 2 expected to be another huge success, there’s no reason Sony wouldn’t seek to further capitalize on the franchise. Either way, 2023 looks like it is shaping up to be a big year for Sony/Marvel Universe fans.