Sony Pictures shocked everyone in March when they scheduled a Venom movie for an October 5, 2018 release. They later hired Ruben Fleischer to direct and Tom Hardy to play the titular character. Fans have wondered since the announcement whether the movie will be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the Spider-man: Homecoming director confirmed that Marvel Studios would not be involved.
During a recent Facebook Live interview with French entertainment site AlloCiné, Marvel President Kevin Feige also confirmed that the studio wasn’t involved with Venom. The interviewer asked whether Marvel had plans to work with Sony on the project or bring the character into the MCU:
No plan to include him (Venom) in the MCU right now. That is Sony's project.
Sony’s aiming for an R-rating for Venom in response to the success of both Deadpool and Logan. Feige recently said that we wouldn’t see an R-rated MCU movie anytime soon. In the latest interview, he admitted that there are no plans for that at the moment, but it hasn’t been ruled out for future movies:
Not currently planning (for an R-rated MCU movie), but I don't think it's out of the question. You know, when I started at Marvel 17 years ago, the Blade franchise was doing very well. A lot of people didn't even know that it was based on a Marvel character, because at the time, they sort of hid the fact that it was Marvel (laughs)"¦So, not out of the question, but not something we're working on right now.
Similarly, the MCU has yet to deliver a movie featuring a female superhero. The DC Extended Universe, which was established five years and 11 installments after the MCU, recently released its Wonder Woman solo movie, which earned rave reviews from critics and is working wonders at the box office for Warner Bros. With movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel on the horizon, Feige is happy that the Patty Jenkins flick is experiencing such great success:
The success of Wonder Woman is wonderful and makes us incredibly happy"¦finally, we can put to rest the falsehood that audiences don't want to see female characters. We never believed that was true. There was a run of movies that just weren't very good 10-15 years ago, which caused that reputation, and I'm glad that Wonder Woman has blown that away.
During the interview, the Marvel President also touched on the never-ending rivalry between Marvel and DC. He doesn't believe it exists!
There's not really a rivalry. The rivalry is much more among the press, I think. Geoff Johns is a very good friend of mine. We grew up together in the business, and recently celebrated Richard Donner, who we both used to work for. So I applaud all the success he's had. I really just look at it as a fan. When the movies perform well, and are well received, it's good for us, which is why I'm always rooting for them.
