Marvel And Sony's Silk: Spider Society Series Is No More
The Spider-Verse gives, and the Spider-Verse takes away. According to Deadline, the live-action TV series "Silk: Spider Society" is dead on arrival after years of development. Earlier this week, MGM+ and Prime Video (which were set to be the streaming home for the series) announced that Nicolas Cage will be starring in his own live-action Spider-Verse spinoff, "Noir," but didn't give any updates on "Silk" a series that was set to shine a spotlight on Korean-American spider-powered hero Cindy Moon. Rights for the character are reportedly set to revert back to Sony Pictures Television, which will continue looking for a home for the show.
Deadline says the series is no more, and their sources vary when it comes to the reason "Silk" isn't moving forward. However, the show has publicly gone through some turnover since even before it was first officially greenlit in 2022. Back in 2018, "Silk" was rumored to be in development as a film from Sony ahead of the release of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." That time around, Spider-Verse producer Amy Pascal was said to be on board the film. By 2020, it was reported that the film idea had been re-conceptualized as a show, with "The Leftovers" writer and executive producer Tom Spezialy set to showrun. At one point, "Atypical" writer Lauren Moon was also on board to pen the "Silk" series.
Cindy Moon's story has been in the works for years
The project kept undergoing changes; in 2022, following Sony-owned MGM's acquisition by Amazon, the show was announced again. This time, former "The Walking Dead" showrunner Angela Kang was tapped to helm the series, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller producing. "Angela is a pro's pro whose perspective and creativity we greatly respect and admire," Lord and Miller said at the time. "She's also a hell of a lot of fun. She loves these characters and we feel really lucky for the chance to work with her to bring Cindy Moon's story to the world."
It makes some sense that the powers that be would need to pare down their offerings given the lukewarm reception to most non-"Venom," non-animated "Spider-Verse" offerings in recent years. The Jared Leto-led 2022 vampire flick "Morbius" bombed at the box office and became instantly infamous for its strong anti-blockbuster energy, while "Madame Web," released earlier this year, didn't fare well in theaters either. Future Spidey-adjacent projects will have to pick up the slack in order to justified so many spinoffs and side projects, and the jury's still out on whether or not this year's "Kraven the Hunter" will do the trick.
Despite all this, it's still frustrating to see a captivating story about a young woman of color get the short end of the stick here. According to Deadline's reporting, "Silk" has been rewritten at least three times and its writers' room was not reconvened in a timely fashion following the resolution of last year's WGA strike. Ultimately, the outlet cites budget allocation concerns as a major reason for the show's axing.