Sony is one of the biggest media conglomerates in Hollywood. From music to films, it has touched down on all forms of entertainment. Even with that kind of expertise in the media world, it has managed to fumble what should have been its most bankable asset: a franchise of movies about Spider-Man characters.
Imagine repeating the same mistake again and again. Can’t relate? Well, Sony can. The studio has done the unthinkable by hitting a new low with Kraven the Hunter. It has failed to redeem itself over and over to the point that it now has no option but to quit taking another chance. Upon analyzing its doom, it turns out that the dumbest move the studio made was the most obvious to anyone even on the outside.
Sony committing this huge mistake was what caused its Spider-Man spinoff movies to fail
Although one of the youngest superheroes, Spider-Man is the Marvel hero who popularized the superhero movie genre. The success of the first trilogy laid the foundations for future superhero film adaptations that would alter the history of cinema.
Unlike the DC’s superhero universe and the MCU, Sony never really had a superhero universe because it did not seem nearly as invested in making movies about these characters. Instead, it was just focused on making movies about characters that were related to Spider-Man. However, it has miraculously failed at that too aside from the ones that the studio has made in association with Marvel Studios.
The studio has consistently made spinoff films about the web slinger’s nemeses without Peter ever showing up. That right there is the biggest mistake it committed. Venom‘s success without Spider-Man gave the studio confidence to continue doing so. In a conversation with Variety, Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock explained:
All of these characters are famous because they went up against Spider-Man. [..] I don’t think they realized that Venom could carry a franchise, whereas these other characters could not. To not have Spider-Man in these films was the fatal flaw.
This is like saying Ken will have a spin-off movie, but Barbie won’t show up in it. What Sony seems to have not understood is that these characters exist because they had something to do with Spider-Man. Without Peter Parker, their existence is of little importance to the fans. Plus, who does not like a good, ol’ showdown between two characters with superpowers? That alone could have saved Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU).
Someone from Sony also told the outlet that none of the studio’s deals with Marvel stopped it from featuring the wall-crawler if the film’s title did not mention him. It was the hesitance of the people at the studio that stopped them from using Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man.
Kraven the Hunter star believes Kraven should face off against Spider-Man in the MCU
Kraven the Hunter is the final nail in the coffin of the SSU. The closest they came to putting the Kraven, portrayed by an eight-packed Aaron Taylor-Johnson, in a fight against Spider-Man is when the hunter hallucinates about being surrounded by a lot of spiders.
However, at the film’s world premiere in New York, Ariana DeBose who stars as Calypso, clearly expressed her thoughts about Kraven going against Spider-Man to Variety.
This is meant to be a standalone film and an origin story, but I do think Kraven deserves that epic showdown with Spider-Man. There’s literally a whole comic about it. Give the people what they want.
Only if Sony had taken DeBose’s advice and put it to use in one of its other films, maybe it would not have come to this. That said, Holland had once told Collider that Jon Watts had a story ready for Kraven the Hunter to be the antagonist in his third solo outing before the film evolved into the multiversal crossover event Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The pattern runs deeper than any single film — the 5 specific Marvel villains Sony ruined with awful storylines in the Spider-Man Universe makes the case for exactly why the spinoff approach was broken from the start.
Frequently asked questions
What does the article say was Sony’s biggest mistake with its Spider-Man spinoff movies?
The article identifies the central error as building spinoff films around Spider-Man’s adversaries while never letting Spider-Man (Peter Parker) actually appear. It cites Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock, speaking to Variety, who argues these villains are famous mainly because they faced Spider-Man, so excluding him removed the key draw. Bock calls leaving Spider-Man out the films’ fatal flaw, noting Venom could carry a franchise while the other characters could not.
Why did Kraven the Hunter and the other Sony spinoffs reportedly struggle?
Per the article, the spinoffs leaned on characters tied to Spider-Man without ever putting Spider-Man on screen, so audiences had little reason to connect with them. It frames Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, as the closest the studio came to the idea, with Kraven only hallucinating spiders rather than facing the hero. The piece also notes a Sony source told Variety that its Marvel deals did not bar featuring Spider-Man as long as his name was not in the title, suggesting the omission was a choice rather than a contractual block.
Did anyone involved want Kraven to fight Spider-Man on screen?
Yes. The article quotes Ariana DeBose, who plays Calypso, telling Variety at the film’s New York premiere that while Kraven the Hunter is meant to be a standalone origin story, Kraven deserves an epic showdown with Spider-Man, pointing out there is a comic about it and urging the studio to give fans what they want. The piece also mentions that, according to Tom Holland speaking to Collider, director Jon Watts once had a story ready for Kraven to be the villain in Holland’s third solo film before it became Spider-Man: No Way Home.
