5 Cinematic Universes That Failed Miserably

Spider-Man has really gone through the ringer when it comes to cinematic debuts. Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and lately Tom Holland have all told the tale of a boy bitten by a radioactive spider who becomes a superhero, with Sony's rights to the character being in constant flux across franchises.

With Sam Raimi's films dying a sad death after his initial three movies suffered the law of diminishing returns and Marvel's latest young superhero making his mark in their own cinematic universe, the awkward remnants of The Amazing Spider-Man still haunt the studio.

With two movies under Garfield's rule, it's fair to say that things are confusing for Spider-Man and his host of appearances across the movie industry over the past decade and a half. By Sony allowing Marvel to utilise their character again, it renders the Amazing Spider-Man somewhat defunct, and lost in a world where his spidey-shenanigans have been taken over by his comic-book-creator franchise. Garfield doesn't really have a place in the canon any more, making the work that Sony put into his movies to make them universes useless.

Whilst the cinematic universes of Spider-Man has been relegated to the shelves, Sony at least are continuing with interlocking standalones (such as Venom) that mine the franchise for all its worth. Selling off their biggest paycheck seems like a bit of a doozy now.