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Sony Pictures announces new Venom and Ghostbusters sequels

Blair Marnell
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At CinemaCon, Sony Pictures didn’t waste any time before making a few major announcements. Via Variety, Sony revealed that Venom 3 and a sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife are in the works. Both films were among Sony’s biggest hits in 2021. However, neither project has a director or even a release date yet.

The post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage set up Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock/Venom for a trip to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom was sent back to his own universe. However, he unintentionally left a piece of his symbiote behind. That seems likely to be followed up on in either the next Venom or Spider-Man movie.

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife was the first sequel since Ghostbusters 2 to be directly linked to the original movie. Carrie Coon headlined the film as Callie Spengler, the estranged daughter of an original Ghostbuster, Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis). Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard also starred as Callie’s children, Phoebe and Trevor. After moving to a remote town following Egon’s death, the Spengler family rediscovered their legacy alongside Podcast (Logan Kim), Lucky Domingo (Celeste O’Connor), Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), and the surviving Ghostbusters. The post-credits scene did tease a future story when Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) failed to notice a warning light in the team’s old headquarters.

Tom Hardy and Mckenna Grace in Venom and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Perhaps the most surprising part of Sony’s presentation is the news that Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a rapper better known as Bad Bunny, has been cast in the lead of El Muerto, a new movie based on a very obscure character from the Spider-Man comics who has rarely been used. Peter David and artist Roger Cruz created El Muerto in 2006 and established his secret identity as Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez. Unlike Morbius, Juan-Carlos comes from a heroic line of Mexican wrestlers whose powers are tied to their masks.

El Muerto will arrive in theaters on January 12, 2024, and it will be Bad Bunny’s first-ever leading role in a film.

Sony also screened an unfinished version of the first 15 minutes of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. That animated film was recently delayed until June 2, 2023. Sony also announced at CinemaCon that the sequel will now be called Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse when it arrives in theaters on March 29, 2024.

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Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
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