According to a new report, Kraven The Hunter will be the last in Sony’s series of Spider-Man spin-off movies, none of which featured Spider-Man.
After six films, lots of cash and a boatload of unfulfilled promises, Sony is (for the time being a least) said to be wrapping up its series of interconnected Spider-Man films. The upcoming Kraven The Hunter will mark the sixth and final film in the series, ending a mini-cinematic universe that began in 2018 with Ruben Fleischer’s Venom and continued through 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, 2022’s Morbius, and this year’s Madame Web and Venom: The Last Dance.
It’s not like Sony are short on Spider-Men these days either. Multiverse storytelling has made, well, an endless amount of them available to the studio, including three beloved cinematic versions that could have been used if Sony didn’t want to use Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
Still, as the films wore on and the reviews got worse, it became apparent that Sony didn’t really have a joined-up plan, and even if they did, the gloomy critical reaction to films such as Morbius and Madame Web meant that the studio was constantly trying to find a surer footing. It’s something an anonymous ‘talent’ agent pointed out to The Wrap – the outlet that has published a report suggesting that Sony is giving up on its Spider-Man adjacent movie franchise.
“The biggest issue with the Sony Spider-Man spinoffs seems to be the lack of quality control,” the source said. “The movies just aren’t good. Sometimes that lack of quality meets a movie no one asked for, which was the case with Madame Web, and that is a no-win scenario. It may be time for Sony to start cultivating different IP to launch new franchises.”
Read more: Madame Web review | What did Sony expect to happen?
Some of the future projects that had been announced, such as an El Muerto project featuring Bad Bunny seemed to either be scraping the barrel of Spider-Man characters or designed via focus group to cash in on whatever was in vogue at the time.
All in all, this is surely for the best and allows the corner of the studio that is focused on Spider-Man to just make great Spider-Man films. That itself isn’t exactly going smoothly, given that Spider-Man 4 was said to be at the centre of a creative disagreement between Sony and Marvel earlier this year. Sony look to have come out on top, and we’re not sure that’s a good thing. Plus, the studio’s follow-up to last year’s animated film, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, has been delayed and its creative leads, Chris Miller and Phil Lord are leaving the studio once the film is complete.
Cancelling future films after Kraven The Hunter will allow Sony to get its house in order at least, although the studio might have waited until after audiences had watched the film to make this announcement. Still, strange choices are nothing new when it comes to these films.
Kraven The Hunter opens in UK cinemas on the 13th December.
