Sony Pictures Animation has started development on an animated Venom feature, shifting the symbiote franchise into a format that has recently delivered some of the studio’s biggest wins. Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the directing team behind Final Destination: Bloodlines, are attached to direct and produce, according to TheWrap, with former franchise lead Tom Hardy involved in some capacity.
The project remains early-stage. Reporting describes the film as in development with no announced release date, and the studio has not detailed story, rating, or casting beyond Hardy’s attachment. Producers tied to the live-action Venom films — Amy Pascal, Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach — are expected to return, though the exact producing lineup has not been formally confirmed.
Sony’s move comes after the live-action run made the character a durable box office property, even as other Spider-Man-adjacent spin-offs struggled to find footing. An animated route gives Sony room to refresh the brand without recreating the same tonal lane, and it aligns the character with the studio’s proven animation pipeline rather than its uneven villain-only live-action experiments.
The timing also matters for Sony Pictures Animation. The studio has tied much of its theatrical identity to franchise animation, with the Spider-Verse films establishing a template for event-scale superhero animation and the next chapter dated for 2027. A new Venom project signals the company wants more than one tentpole in that space, and it places a high-recognition Marvel character into a division that can deliver spectacle without the cost profile of live action.
