Sony’s last hope: The tumultuous journey to Kraven

WEB DESK: Long before Sony’s latest superhero outing, Kraven the Hunter, was announced, Sony began their plans for their own cinematic universe, hoping to cash in on their contemporary’s success.

And even before Venom was released in 2018, Sony had begun to plan their own expanded universe with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. The film featured a cameo of Felicity Jones as Felicia Hardy, also known as Black Cat. Lisa Joy was hired to write the script, and a leaked email shows plans to release the film in the second half of 2018. That same email featured many other projects that were never made, such as a Spider-Man 2099 series of films, which the email described as a “Captain-America type franchise.” At the end of the film Miguel O’Hara would be sent back in time, setting up a future team up.

However, some films from the email were made, such as a Venom movie, which the email shows was planned for 2018. Similarly, a Carnage movie was planned for 2019 and while Carnage was featured as the antagonist in the sequel to 2018’s Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the email described a completely different narrative.

The scrapped Carnage movie was planned to have featured a team up, much like Marvel were doing with the Avengers. Peter Parker, Venom, Black Cat, and Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 would “join forces to bring him to justice,” the email reads, as the “team-up like no other” would take Carnage down.  It’s clear that despite dubbing it a team up like no other, Sony wanted to draw heavily from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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SO WHAT HAPPENED?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 bombed relative to Sony’s expectations. The film brought over $700 million at the box office, however a poorer domestic showing compared to the last instalment, as well as the expectation of using the movie as a foundation for a cinematic universe, gave Sony pause.

High expectations combined with backlash to not only the film, but the leaked emails showcasing Sony’s plans for the future, made the multimedia behemoth rethink its plans. And then Spider-Man joined the MCU in 2015, which brought in a hefty amount of profit for Sony.

HOWEVER

That meant that Sony’s own cinematic universe was left without its main player. This led to a rather lacklustre series of movies beginning with Venom, which performed well at the box office, but was critically thrashed. Similarly, the films two sequels didn’t do so well in the eyes of critics either, however this time, they also saw diminishing audience interest, with the last film in the trilogy performing the worst out of the three at the box office.

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Other films in the Sony Spider-Man Universe, including Morbius and Madame Web, have performed even worse. Morbius brought in only $167.5 million at the box office, while Madame Web brought in even less with a little over $100 million. If Kraven the Hunter performs as poorly or worse, which BoxOfficePro predicts it will with a projecting domestic earnings of $20-25 million in tis first three days, Sony may have to rethink their plans once again.

KRAVEN

Interestingly, the first film listed in the aforementioned leak was a prequel to The Amazing Spider Man 2, in which Kraven would hunt down Spider-Man on Norman Osbornes orders. However, this proposed film would still feature Spider-man as the protagonist, while the upcoming film will solely revolve around the big game hunter.

Kraven the Hunter releases on December 13, and the director is already worried about its performance. J.C Chandor stated that fans “have got to give us a chance and come out and support this film, and literally try to wash away some of the other stuff that’s happened.”

Various media outlets have also pointed to the fact of the opening of the film being released on YouTube as a sign of Sony’s desperation to draw interest. However, this is a tactic that Sony have used with many of their previous films.

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Whether the film performs well or not may determine if a Sinister Six film will be planned or not. Sony have already showcased that the opportunity to bring some of their villains into the MCU to face Spider-Man, or vice versa. A Sinister Six film was also planned in the leaked emails, and would have released shortly after the Kraven film.

If the film does perform well, it may lay the foundation for a future in which the Sony Spider-Man Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are connected beyond just post credit scenes.