The saga of Sony’s Spider-Man-less Universe spinoffs continues. The series of spinoffs would give Spider-Man supporting characters their own cinematic universe, but without the prominent webslinger. It’s not clear how that would work, but the studio believes that they could create a successful franchise based on these characters. The upcoming Venom film directed by Ruben Fleischer, a dark take on the anti-hero, would be the first. Silver And Black was to be the second. However, new reports are saying that the film has been taken off Sony’s release schedule. More on the story below.

Exhibitor Relations tweeted out the news, saying Silver And Black has gone from being scheduled for release on February 8, 2019 to being taken off the schedule completely. While they did not provide any details as to why this happened, Deadline says the film is going back into development.

Apparently, Sony wants to have the same kind of success as Marvel Studios and want to “deliver the best feature possible.” So in order to do that, they will rewrite the script. Captain Marvel screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Chaos Walking screenwriter Lindsey Beer handed in the first drafts. Thor: Ragnarok scribe Christopher Yost also penned a draft. He was working based on a script by Westworld creator Lisa Joy.

Love And Basketball‘s Gina Prince-Bythewood will direct. Her other credits include The Secret Life Of Bees and Beyond The Lights.

As for Silver And Black, the film centers on Black Cat and Silver Sable. The former is an expert thief and love interest to Spider-Man. The latter is an expert marksman and hunter of war criminals. Both were often seen as ally and enemy to Spider-Man.

While the two are Marvel characters, they would not be a part of the MCU. Instead, they would be a part of Sony’s Marvel Universe. The studio, which bought the film rights to Spider-Man, owns the license to Spider-Man characters. So while Spider-Man: Homecoming is financed and distributed by Sony, Marvel Studios has the creative license to the character. But Marvel Studios does not get a say in what Sony does for their Spider-Man-less universe and they aren’t involved in it either.

So it will be interesting to see how these characters, with connections to Spider-Man, can work without him. And Venom will be the first test of that. Although, it sounds like Sony has it figured out if they are just sending Silver And Black for rewrites, rather than can it. We’ll just have to wait and see.

While this delay puts the film back and disappoints fans looking forward to it, we can take comfort in knowing that Sony wants to put out the best feature possible. Of course, we will keep you updated on any new developments as they come in.

[Source: Deadline]