Why Amazon Canceled Their Spider-Man Spinoff Series ‘Silk’
Sony Pictures’ attempt to expand its Spider-Man-Less Spider-Man Universe in 2024 has yielded mixed results. Madame Web began the year with abysmally negative reviews and was a box office disaster, while Kraven the Hunter , a movie no one asked for , was pushed back from August 2024 to December. Now Venom: The Last Dance has been confirmed as the franchise’s final entry.
Additionally, Sony’s attempt to bring the Spider-Man franchise to live-action streaming TV was a mixed bag. Prime Video and MGM+ announced a live-action Spider-Man Noir series called Noir, starring Nicolas Cage, but they also revealed that the proposed television series based on Marvel superhero Silk had been scrapped.
Previously billed as Silk: Spider Society , the series had been in development since at least 2020 (2018 if you include the earlier ambitions for a feature) and would have brought the little known derivative character to life.
In June 2018, Sony Pictures first revealed their plans to make a live-action film based on Silk from Marvel Comics. However, in 2019, it was reported that the project had been changed to a television series, with Lauren Moon (Atypical) creating the series for 2020. The series underwent an overhaul in November 2022 under Angela Kang (The Walking Dead) as showrunner and executive producer, with Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal remaining on board and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse creative duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller joining as executive producers. Silk: Spider Society , would have seen Cindy Moon escape prison after being bitten by a radioactive spider and embark on a quest for her lost family.
Yes, it is a female version of Peter Parker. Are you not entertained?
Production was halted owing to the WGA Strike of 2023, and on February 16, 2024 (the same day Madame Web debuted in theaters), it was revealed that Silk was being altered to appeal to a more male audience. What this meant was unknown at the moment, but after Prime Video cancelled the project in May 2024, it appeared that Amazon demanded that the series focus less on Silk, despite her being the title character.
The Marvels’ poor box office performance, followed by the critical and box office reception to Madame Web, undoubtedly affected the brand. The studio attempted to blame it on the fact that it had three female superheroes, despite the fact that Captain Marvel grossed $1 billion in 2019.
Sony Pictures should be free to take Silk: Spider Society to any other streamer now that Prime Video has dropped it, though Disney+ is unlikely to accept it given the Spider-Man and Marvel ties. They don’t want to damage their brand any further. Could Paramount+ or AppleTV+ profit from having a Marvel superhero production on their platform? Does it matter whether the material is good or not?
What isn’t being acknowledged by Sony or Marvel, or their supporters, is that The Marvels and Madame Web flopped for a reason wholly unrelated to gender. They both bombed for the same reasons Morbius and Thor 4 failed. They were not good movies. Simple as that. And there is no reason to believe that Silk , or Kraven the Hunter , will be good either.
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