A project doomed for years

Forecasts were poor. Results were worse. It was coming since 2018.

Whether ‘Kraven the Hunter’ will be the slab that burys Sony’s Spider-Man-less Spiderverse project is unknown, but in its first weekend, it did worse at the box office than ‘Morbius’ and ‘Madame Web’. Those failures suggested Sony should rethink its live-action Spider-verse project.

The numbers. We expected low expectations, around $13-15 million. But it has fallen even lower: $11 million in the US (plus $15 million internationally) and one of the worst Rotten Tomatoes ratings, 15%. Sony’s third superhero film this year, after ‘Madame Web’ and ‘Venom: The Last Dance’, suggests franchise exhaustion. It’s a pittance for a film that cost $110 million, more than expected due to delays since 2018.

A historical villain. The idea of using Kraven, a Spider-Man villain from 1964 comic book issue 15, in a film dates back to Sam Raimi’s films. The director wanted him to star with Tobey Maguire in the fourth film, but the 2013 reboot was chosen. He was considered for a third film with Andrew Garfield, but it never happened. Later, Ryan Coogler wanted Kraven to fight Black Panther in his MCU film about the character, but it never happened.

Kraven (2018). After the success of ‘The Equalizer 2’, Richard Wenk began writing the villain’s film that year. Continue the villain universe that had started well at the box office with ‘Venom’ that year. Even though it had to be split into two films, he and Sony wanted to adapt the dark and violent Spider-Man miniseries ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’. It was discarded because it was unusual, and the next idea was to combine Kraven and Spider-Man for Tom Holland’s second MCU film.

Trouble arises. By this point, Sony’s Spider-Verse had lost its shine after Venom, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who also worked on Kraven, were rewriting Morbius without credit. After Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, and Adam Driver, JC Chandor and Aaron Taylor Johnson were in talks to direct and star. By this time, Holland was considered, and a $90 million budget was approved, which skyrocketed to $130 million after the 2023 writers and actors strikes.

Continued delays. The film was rescheduled for January 2023. After October, it was delayed almost a year to August 2024 and then to December. The usual reason: reshoots to “sharpen the characters and adjust the plot”. Especially after ‘Madame Web’ failed and Sony may be fearing the worst.

Finally, the worst predictions have come true, the Spider-verse’s future is uncertain, and we are once again faced with a series of production mechanics, expression of ideas, filming, and post-production that no longer work.

A project doomed for years

By ki0nk

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