In news sure not to excite anyone in particular, Kraven the new Hunter is now in theaters. The latest and most likely last live-action spin-off flick for Sony’s unfortunate cinematic universe is limping towards a awkward opening week-end with scathing reviews (plus IGN’s), marking an ignominious end for what’s been one of the worst years ever for the superhero genre. While no major superhero franchise is at its best right now, with the MCU struggling to get back to the heights of the Infinity Saga and Warner Bros. betting big on James Gunn’s upcoming Superman reboot to get DC back on track, none have been as consistently lackluster as the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Or is it the Sony World away from Ponder Letters (SUMC)?
Whatever this franchise was supposed to be called, it’s all but certainly over. The fresh Wrap recently reported that Sony Pictures is seeking to shutter this flailing enterprise after Kraven the Hunter so they can put all their focus on the upcoming Spider-Man 4 and Beyond the Spider-Verse. Good on them for cutting their losses and not subjecting us to any more of this nonsense, but the real question is: How did anyone think this was going to turn out differently? None of these movies were particularly good (sorry, Venom fans) and they all starred characters who are defined by their relationships to Spider-Man, a character they weren’t allowed to meet. This series was always going to fail, even if someone managed to wrangle a worthwhile movie out of the situation. Let’s take a look at why Sony’s Marvel Universe was doomed before it even started.
The fresh new Sony World has been a mystical beast due to brand new strange legal rights disease they exists from inside the. Sony Photos keeps the film legal rights into the Crawl-Man operation, however, adopting the crucial and you may economic frustration of the Unbelievable Spider-Guy dos inside the 2014, Sony made a decision to share Crawl-People that have Wonder Studios and allow Peter Parker to move on the fresh MCU, in which he is just like the already been played of the Tom The netherlands. But Sony got already been invention towards multiple twist-from projects inside TASM weeks, eg Venom and you will Sinister Half a dozen video. Sony obviously wished to exploit more of the Marvel characters they got access to, however the center point of your operation, Spider-People, is now involved with Balinese beautiful women the web based of what actually is theoretically its competition.
The new solamente Examine-Guy clips that emerged just after was indeed indicative of your own inactive-aggressive arrangement one Disney and Sony hit. Homecoming and far From your home have been drowning in the records towards the wide MCU, ensuring that it might be difficult for Sony to just take out of plan as opposed to upsetting admirers and shareholders who would matter why Holland’s now well-accepted types of the smoothness are no offered in the same industry since his Avengers company, if you are Not a chance Home made use of brute force to obtain items of characters off Sony’s low-MCU franchises towards the legitimacy into the electricity of your multiverse. However, nothing of this transform you to definitely Sony’s link with new wider Question brand is actually interestingly you to-sided, something which actually standard visitors had been able to cluing into.
The in association with Marvel logo that Sony was forced to use and the clear indication that they weren’t allowed to feature Spider-Man in their spin-off films created an omnipresent feeling of Sony’s films being a B-side to the MCU. Regardless of how many times Tom Hardy or others teased Venom meeting Spider-Man, the entire Venom trilogy emerged and you will ran without the two characters ever crossing paths. Same with Morbius, Madame Web, and now Kraven, with the closest thing to a proper Peter Parker appearance outside of Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene being him being born in Madame Web. It’s laughable that a cinematic universe filled with Spider-Man characters doesn’t actually have Spider-Man in it, but that fact ruined the series in more ways than one.