Will Venom be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Before being sacked in February 2015 from her position as the Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment Amy Pascal secured a monumental deal with Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige to reboot the Spider-Man movie franchise once again, but with the character established as part of Marvel's recording breaking and trend setting Cinematic Universe, with both studios benefitting financially from the deal and with Marvel Studios rumored to have creative control. Many have perceived this deal as a move by Feige to reconsolidate the movie production rights to all of Marvels intellectual properties under one roof - Following the comic book giants brush with bankruptcy in the nineties Avi Arad sold the production rights to many Hollywood studios including Spider-Man (Sony Pictures), Hulk (Universal Pictures), Blade (New Line Cinema) and X-Men and the Fantastic Four (20th Century Fox).Marvel Studios' Cinematic Universe, now in its third phase has become one of the most successful movie franchises, both critically and commercially and has inspired other studios in Hollywood to emulate the concept as is evidenced with Warner Bros. and DC's DCEU and Universal Pictures' Dark Universe. While Marvel Studios is willing to experiment with its roster of movies using lesser known intellectual properties (Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther) it is unlikely that Feige would be willing to jeopardize all that he has achieved in a deal to secure his company's most recognizable superhero, by collaborating with a troubled studio and unpopular producer.

Following the notorious Sony Hacking scandal of late 2014, Amy Pascal was fired as Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment amidst claims of racism, sexism, and mismanagement. It was under Pascal's leadership that the Studio produced Spider-Man 3 and the two rebooted Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield. It was also under Pascal's tenure as Chairperson that Sony Pictures released poorly reviewed movies such as 2012's Total Recall, 2013's White House Down, and 2014's RoboCop. And it was also Pascal who greenlit Paul Feig's proposal for an all-female reboot of Ghostbusters (pictured above) on the back of a "lunch meeting" in which the director turned down the chance to direct the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3, completely sidelining executive producer Ivan Reitman and the cast of the original Ghostbusters movies were hoping to begin production on their sequel in early 2015.

Taking into consideration Pascal's history, and the mismanagement of Sony Pictures Entertainment under her tenure and the troubled studio's recent mismarketing of its rebooted Amazing Spider-Man movies it really comes as no surprise that in a recent interview to promote the upcoming Spider-Man Homecoming that producer Pascal, somewhat clumsily, proves once again her inadequacy as a movie producer - In a recent interview (via CBM) Pascal states that the Venom movie, which is currently in development and to star Tom Hardy as the alien symbiote possessed anti-hero Eddie Brock, will be part of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Embarrassingly for Pascal, this statement is contrary to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige's recent statements (via Bloody Disgusting) that the proposed R-rated Venom movie, due to begin production this fall will not be part of the MCU.

Feige's apparent surprise (above) to Pascal's fumbling statement in the video interview could be the reason why it has since been removed from the Twitter page of Comic Fade that broke the news; an attempt by Marvel Studios to play down Pascal's "Faux Pas" which will likely be clarified in due course with a clearer statement as to whether or not the Venom movie will take part within the MCU. But considering the darker tone of Marvel Studios TV serials and the cult success of the Blade trilogy would an R-rated Venom movie loosely attached to the MCU be a bad thing - remember Marvel Comics did run a more mature line of comics known as Marvel Knights. Maybe the Venom movie could be the first movie to re-explore this concept on the big screen and allow for MCU R-rated movies of the Punisher, Daredevil, and maybe one day even Deadpool?