Sony Dates Two Marvel Movies for 2020

By Matt Donnelly

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Sony Pictures is staking out two significant dates in 2020 for their piece of the Marvel pie, the Spider-Man universe.

An untitled – project will hit theaters on July 10, 2020, with an untitled Sony-Marvel sequel following on Oct. 2.

While no specifics were provided in the studio’s announcement, the July project is likely “Morbius,” starring Jared Leto . The character is another villain from the Spidey canon, which will be shepherded by “Safe House” director Daniel Espinosa. Morbius first surfaced in the 1971 comic “The Amazing ,” as a scientist seeking a cure for a blood disease. Things don’t go as planned, and the doctor winds up with vampiric traits and a thirst for blood.

That project should arrive with significant anticipation, given how well the studio fared by playing up another Spider-Man villain in Venom. Speaking of the symbiote, the second date is presumably for “ 2,” which will see Tom Hardy return as a gruff journalist sharing a body with an alien keen on invading the planet.

Sony opened the first “Venom,” directed by Ruben Fleischer, in the same timeframe this year to great success — the film launched to $80 million on its way to a lifetime domestic gross of $210 million. It has earned close to $570 million worldwide, and as of Wednesday, amassed $215 million in China alone in only 12 days of release.