It is not known if ‘Kraven the Hunter’ will go down in history as the slab that has definitively buried the Spiderverse project without Spider-Man that Sony has set up, but for now, it has a record that it cannot boast too much about: in Its first weekend has performed even less at the box office than disasters like ‘Morbius‘ and ‘Madame Web‘. And those were already considered setbacks that gave the impression that Sony had to rethink its live-action Spider-verse project.
The figures. The expectations, as we anticipated at the time, they were already lowaround 13-15 million dollars. But it has fallen even short: barely 11 million dollars in collection in the United States (plus a scarce additional 15 in the international market), and one of the worst evaluations in sites like Rotten Tomatoes where it holds a unusually low 15%. It is already Sony’s third superhero film this year, after ‘Madame Web’ and ‘Venom: The Last Dance‘, which suggests a certain exhaustion of the franchise. In any case, it is a minuscule amount for a film that has cost 110 million dollars, an amount higher than expected due to countless delays since 2018.
A historical villain. The idea of using Kraven in a film, an enemy of Spider-Man whose origins date back to issue 15 of the character’s comic book, in 1964 no less, goes back to the time of Sam Raimi’s films. The director wanted him to star in the fourth installment of the franchise with Tobey Maguire, an idea that was discarded in favor of reboot 2013. And although there was interest in resuming it in a third installment of the films starring Andrew Garfield, the appearance did not occur. Later, Ryan Coogler wanted Kraven to fight Black Panther in his MCU movie about the characterbut it didn’t come to fruition either.
Kraven (2018). In that year, the villain’s film, written by Richard Wenk, who had just come off the success of ‘The Equalizer 2’, began to take shape. The idea was to continue the shared universe of villains that had started well at the box office with ‘Venom‘ that same year. The initial idea, both his and Sony’s, was to adapt the miniseries ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’, a dark and violent Spider-Man comic, very far from the usual image of the hero, even if the project had to be divided into two. movies. It was discarded as unusual and the next idea was to integrate Kraven and Spider-Man into a movie of the MCU for Tom Holland’s second adventure, but it was also scrapped.
Problems arrive. By then, Sony’s spider-verse had stopped looking as good as it did after the success of ‘Venom’, and projects like ‘Morbius’ were beginning to undergo rewrites. uncredited by Art Marcum and Matt Hollowaywho also got involved in Kraven’s project. Both JC Chandor and Aaron Taylor Johnson were signed on as director and star (after actors like Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves and Adam Driver were in the conversation). At that time, the possibility of Holland intervening was on the table, and a budget of 90 million was given the green light… which skyrocketed when the 2023 screenwriters’ and actors’ strikes began, reaching 130 million that it ended up costing.
Delays and more delays. And then the shifts in the release date began: the film was scheduled to hit the screens in January 2023. From there it went to October, then it was delayed almost a year until August 2024 and finally, to December. The reason, the usual one: reshoots with which it was intended “sharpen the characters and tighten the plot.” Especially with the recent failure of ‘Madame Web’ on top of it, and possibly with Sony fearing the worst scenario. Finally the worst forecasts have come true, the future of the Spider-verse is in the air, and the feeling, once again, is that we are not facing a failed project, but rather a series of production mechanics, embodiment of ideas , filming and post-production that no longer work.
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