Sony to Reboot Spider-Man Universe With “New People” After Several Box Office Flops
Sony film boss Tom Rothman also reveals China banned ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ because it showed the Statue of Liberty.
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February 24, 2026 1:21pm
Rothman was asked by Matt Belloni on The Town podcast, “Where are we in the Spider-Man franchise? Not the animated Spider-Verse. Is the larger Spider-Verse dead?”
“No,” replied Rothman.
“Are you going to go back to those at some point?”
“Yes,” Rothman confirmed.
“But it’ll be a fresh reboot?”
“Yes.”
“New people?”
“Yes, yes.”
The executive added that “scarcity has value … you got to make the audience miss you.”
Rothman also, for the first time, confirmed a 2021 report that Spider-Man: No Way Home was banned in China due to the film’s climax taking place at the Statue of Liberty.
The executive pointed out the film made $1.9 billion globally, which “pisses me off to have to say this.”
“You say, ‘$1.9 billion, what’s wrong with [saying] 2?’ Well, it didn’t get into China, but in my mind [the film’s box office is] over 2 [billion] because I know what we would have done in China.”
“[The China Film Administration] just said, ‘Small thing, no problem, just cut out the Statue of Liberty’ — which is where the climax is. That was their request.”
Needless to say, Rothman did not change the film — which might have been impossible given the sheer amount of screen time that takes place at the iconic New York landmark.
“Also, I really didn’t look forward to sitting in front of Congress, telling them why I cut the Statue of Liberty out at the request of the Chinese Communist Party,” he added.
Sony reportedly courted China heavily for Spider-Man: No Way Home, even releasing a Chinese poster amid hopes it would be the first Marvel Phase 4 film to clear censorship approvals. The prior film, Far From Home, made $200 million in China.
Rothman was also asked about his relationship with Marvel boss Kevin Feige, and opined, “There are two people about whom I would say this — and maybe more if I think about it — but never bet against Jim Cameron and never bet against Kevin Feige.”
The live-action Spider-Man universe movies were plagued by both poor reviews and weak box office. Launched with 2018’s hit Venom, which set a high-water mark for the franchise with $856 million globally, the efforts included 2022’s Morbius ($162 million globally), 2024’s Madame Web ($100 million globally) and 2024’s Kraven the Hunter (an abysmal $60 million globally against an estimated production budget of more than $100 million).