Sony film franchise fans have cause to be excited, as the company took to CinemaCon 2022 to announce sequels to two of their most lucrative and well-known series: Venom and Ghostbusters.
Sony's exploration of Marvel characters through its Spider-Man Universe has so far been a mixed bag in terms of critical and audience success, with their most recent entry Morbius performing badly in all aspects. Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage both received largely mixed and divisive reviews, with the second generally seen as more successful than the first but still sustaining a fair amount of criticism.
At the time of its release, the second Venom film received the highest opening box office numbers of any movies released during the COVID-19 pandemic. That, combined with the MCU tie-ins in the mid-credit scene, mean most likely aren't too surprised that the franchise is continuing. Though another Venom film had been confirmed in late 2021 by producer Amy Pascal, the company's focus was very firmly on their massively successful MCU film, Spider-Man: No Way Home. This third Venom film is set to follow the events of the second movie in the franchise, Let There Be Carnage, while the newest Ghostbusters addition will follow last year's Ghostbusters: Afterlife. No hard details on either film are confirmed.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife was the fourth addition to the franchise as a whole, but the third film canonical to the original series started in 1984. There was of course a 2016 reboot attempted, directed by Paul Feig and consisting of an all-female main cast. Ultimately, that version of Ghostbusters was critically panned, and at the time it seemed like the franchise was dead. However, Ghostbusters: Afterlife was released last year, directed by Jason Reitman, who is the son of the original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, and was generally very well received. The newly announced sequel will be the fifth Ghostbusters film overall.
On top of these two films, there was a lot of news to come out of Sony's CinemaCon presentation. New info about the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was released along with a title for the third film in the franchise. They also announced a new addition to their Marvel universe, El Muerto starring Bad Bunny.
Venom 3 is currently in development at Sony.
Source: Sony Pictures