Sony announces Venom and Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequels

Good news for Paul Thomas Anderson and the rest of the Venom franchise fans: Sony Pictures officially green-lit a third movie after Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s box office success proved people still care enough about Venom to potentially sit through yet another film. The news was announced by Sony during a panel at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, per Variety.

While Morbius was a big gamble for Sony’s Marvel division—ultimately it bombed at the box office—the Venom franchise has drummed up more interest after a sequel that felt better than the first movie. As Jesse Hassenger wrote in his Let There Be Carnage review for The A.V. Club, “It’s the rare follow-up that tries to outdo its predecessor by shortening up, seemingly guided by the principle that a trimmer running time will amount to more mayhem per minute. It does.”

Besides Venom, Sony also announced plans to make a sequel to the new Ghostbusters reboot Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The new Ghostbusters installment had a more traditional, blockbuster action flick feel than the campy, humorous quality of the ‘80s movies. But it still gained enough attention that it doesn’t seem like a risk for Sony to turn it into a franchise.

No other details were shared about either sequels, but during that Sony panel, there was another big announcement made: Bad Bunny is set to star in a standalone Marvel movie about El Muerto, an obscure hero who’s crossed paths with Spider-Man.

This is a historic moment for Sony and Marvel, too, as El Muerto is the first Latino Marvel character to get a live-action movie. The character is a wrestler who gets his powers from his mask. Though the character has barely made appearances in the Spider-Man comics, it’s understandable why Sony would want to go with a movie that’ll surely bring in audiences that include those outside Marvel’s fanbase. That movie is set to premiere on January 12, 2024.