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Summary
Silk: Spider Society
was recently canceled by Prime Video, leaving audiences wondering what happened to the series.
The character was recently introduced into Marvel Comics, and fans were excited to see a live-action adaptation.
The cancelation may be an example of the unfair double standard and pressure put upon female-led superhero stories.
2024 has been a mixed bag for Sony Pictures’ attempt to expand its Marvel Spider-Man Shared Universe (SSU). Madame Web kicked off the year with terrible reviews and a box office failure, with Kraven the Hunter being delayed from August 2024 to December. Venom: The Last Dance has been confirmed to be the final entry in the franchise. Meanwhile, Prime Video and MGM+ announced that they would be making a live-action Spider-Man Noir series starring Nicolas Cage titled Noir.
Sony’s attempt to expand the Spider-Man franchise into live-action streaming television was a mixed bag. Shortly after Noir‘s announcement, news also broke out that the planned television show based on the Marvel hero Silk had been canceled. Previously announced as Silk: Spider Society, the series had been in development since at least 2020 (2018 if you count the plans for a film) that would have brought a fan-favorite hero to live-action. Here is what fans could have seen in this now-canceled Marvel Spider-Man-centric spin-off series.
Who Is Silk, and When Did She Debut in Marvel Comics?
Silk debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 vol. 3 in April 2014 in a faceless cameo before receiving a full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #4 in July 2014. She was created by writer Dan Slott and artist Humberto Ramos. Her real name is Cindy Moon, a Korean-American student on the same field trip as Peter Parker the day the radioactive spider bit him, and shortly after biting him, it bit Cindy before slowly dying. Her powers manifested, and her family was approached by Ezekiel Sims (the character who was the villain in Madame Web), who offered to teach her how to control her abilities. After six years of training to use her powers, Cindy is locked up inside a facility by Ezekiel to protect her and the other “spiders” from a group of villains known as the Inheritors.
During the events of the storyline “Original Sin,” Spider-Man discovers Cindy’s existence and goes looking for her. He finds her, but she attacks him and is able to escape, only to discover that in her time away, her family has moved from New York. She webs herself her own costume and gives herself the name Silk. Due to being bitten by the same radioactive spider and sharing the same form of spider-sense, Peter Parker and Cindy Moon find themselves drawn toward one another.
Since her debut, Silk has become a fan favorite, particularly as Marvel Comics has looked to diversify its roster of heroes for a modern audience. The character played a role in the Spider-Verse comic storyline, was a member of the Agents of Atlas team, and was teased at the end of Sony’s Spider-Man 2 video game. She will likely be a big part of the game’s sequel. It seemed that Marvel was setting up Silk as a major character.
Silk Movie Eventually Became a Television Series (That Never Happened)
In June 2018, Sony Pictures announced that it was looking to develop a live-action movie based on Silk. Yet, in 2019, it was announced that the project had shifted to a television series, and Lauren Moon (Atypical) was developing the series in 2020. The series underwent an overhaul in November 2022 under Angela Kang (The Walking Dead) as showrunner and executive producer, with Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal still on board with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse creative duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller also signed on as executive producers. The series was titled Silk: Spider Society and would have seen Cindy Moon escape imprisonment after being bitten by a radioactive spider and begin a search for her missing family.
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Productions were suspended due to the WGA Strike of 2023, and on February 16, 2024 (the same day Madame Web opened in theaters), it was reported that Silk was being reworked to skew towards a more male audience. What this meant was unclear at the time, but after Prime Video pulled the plug on the project in May 2024, it seemed that Amazon requested the series focus less on Silk despite her being the titular character.
Besides the fact that the plan seemed to be that Silk would search for her missing family after being imprisoned for years, which is a loose adaptation of her story in the comics, it is unknown exactly what the rest of the series would have been about. Likely, the series would not have featured Spider-Man due to the complicated rights sharing with Marvel Studios, and Ezekiel Sims might also not have factored into the series due to being in Madame Web.
It is also unclear what version of the Spider-Man universe it would have occurred in. Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carange, and Morbius all occur within the same universe, dubbed Earth-688, in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Madame Web took place in a separate universe and seemed to imply that Sony Pictures would connect all their live-action Spider-Man projects and animated Spider-Verse films together through Madame Web and the Web of Life and Destiny that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse introduced. This means that Silk could have taken place in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man universe, the Amazing Spider-Man universe, the Madame Web universe, Earth-688, or even its own separate universe.
The concept of other universes might have played a significant role in Silk. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also introduced the Spider Society, a large collection of Spider-Men from across the multiverse gathered by Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099. Given that the series was called Silk: Spider Society, it is likely she would have been joined by a collection of different web slingers from across the multiverse, possibly even Spider-Man Noir, and they planned to feature the two shows as more closely connected.
Why Silk Might Have Been Canceled
It is baffling to hear that Amazon requested that a series based on the Marvel hero Silk focus less on the titular character. What motivated this decision? Well, it might sadly have to do with the box office performance of The Marvels and then the critical and box office reaction to Madame Web. The Marvels became Marvel Studios’ first flop and certainly hurt their brand, and many people tried to place the blame on the fact that it featured three female superheroes (ignoring the fact that Captain Marvel did make $1 billion in 2019).
Meanwhile, Madame Web received extremely negative reviews and poor box office, but none of that was due to the movie featuring female superheroes. In fact, some might argue it would have been better if it was a Spider-Woman movie instead of stripping the film of everything that makes it a superhero project.
The box office performance of female superhero projects has always been held to a higher standard than male-performing superheroes. Famously, former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter used the poor box office and the critical reaction of Supergirl, Catwoman, and Elektra as an excuse not to make a female-led superhero movie, despite Kevin Feige pushing for a Captain Marvel movie. This wasn’t a sentiment just shared by him, as one can see that Warner Bros. clearly was hesitant to greenlight a Wonder Woman movie despite her being DC’s third most popular superhero.
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Nobody took the fact that Supergirl, Catwoman, and Elektra flopped because they were bad movies; they only took the surface-level aesthetic of them all being female-centric. Yet this doesn’t apply to male superhero movies. Green Lantern bombing didn’t stop more male-centric DC and Marvel movies or even Ryan Reynolds-led superhero movies. The Flash flopping won’t stop more male-led superhero movies from being made, so why did Madame Web or The Marvels stop Silk: Spider-Society?
It is a clear double standard. This is further demonstrated by the fact that they greenlit Noir, starring Nicolas Cage. Cage’s previous live-action superhero movies were the critically panned Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. While one might say that is not fair, doesn’t speak to Noir, and is an argument against the series in bad faith, they would be right. Just like using Madame Web against Silk: Spider Society is also in bad faith and just as much of a stretch.
The fact that Prime Video seemed to request Silk: Spider Society be more male-centric the week Madame Web was opening to a disappointing box office and after The Marvels bombed at the box office is too big a coincidence to ignore. While Prime Video did pull the plug on it, Sony Pictures is free to take Silk: Spider Society to any other streamer. It is unlikely that Disney+ would take it, despite the connection between Spider-Man and Marvel. Yet there are streamers like Paramount+ or AppleTV+ who could likely benefit from having a Marvel superhero project on their platform.
“}]] Prime Video pulled the plug on the in-development Silk series, based on the Spider-Man supporting character; here is why and what could have been. Read More