‘Venom’ rated PG-13 so that character can meet Spider-Man in future

Sony

• “Venom” is officially rated PG-13, not R as some fans
  expected.
• According to Erik Davis, managing editor of Fandango,
  it’s so that “Venom and Spider-Man can face off at some point
  down the line.”
• Sony’s deal with Marvel Studios allows Sony to develop
  its own Spider-Man films while the character is included in
  the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It looks like some fans aren’t getting the R-rated “Venom” movie
they anticipated.

“Venom,” which comes to theaters next month, is officially rated
PG-13. According to Erik Davis, the managing editor of
movie-ticketing website Fandango, it’s because the studio, Sony,
wants the character to meet the more family-friendly Spider-Man
in future films.

Davis tweeted on Thursday, “#Venom is officially rated
PG-13. Hearing from studio sources the reason is so that Venom
and Spider-Man can face off at some point down the line. If the
movie is R, it’s hard to do that.”

The “X-Men” franchise has managed to balance both PG-13 rated and
more violent R-rated films like “Logan” and “Deadpool,” but it
appears that Sony doesn’t want to take that risk with “Venom.”

Venom is one of Spider-Man’s most popular villains in the comics
books, but has also been depicted as an anti-hero, and that seems
to be the direction the movie is going. The character debuted in
1984 and was first portrayed on the big screen by Topher Grace in
“Spider-Man 3.”

Sony, which has held onto the Spider-Man film right since 2002’s
“Spider-Man,” made a deal with Marvel Studios in 2015 in which
Marvel could include its own version of Spider-Man in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe (played by Tom Holland) while Sony retained
distribution rights and final creative control over “Spider-Man”
films. That means Sony was still free to develop films based on
Spider-Man characters while the wallcrawler himself showed up in
the MCU.

It also means that there’s a possibility for Spider-Man to show
up in a “Venom” movie, or any other Sony-developed Spider-Man
movie. There’s a lot of questions that would raise though: Would
Sony cast its own Spider-Man separate from Holland’s version?
Would Holland reprise his role as the character, and would that
mean the films would be part of the MCU?

Those questions aren’t likely to be answered any time soon, but
audiences can expect a light “Venom” movie in the meantime.

“Venom” comes to theaters October 5.