In just short of 2 weeks, Venom: The Last Dance will release to audiences on October 25th and following that is Kraven the Hunter, which will come out on December 13th. I’m here to talk about why these films are crucial to the SSU (Sony Spider-Man Universe) and the Spider-Man brand as a whole.
These Films Need to be a Success Both Critically and Financially in Order for the SSU to Survive
While Venom: The Last Dance has a better chance of making money, it still falls into the same umbrella of needing to be a hit with critics and the general audience. This is apparently the last movie in the franchise and needs to somehow feel more creative than the last two entries that had more known villains and characters such as Carnage. Sony and Tom Hardy are both saying that these will be the last Venom films, so it won’t be a home-run hit like it was in 2018 for this franchise. Even though Knull is the next big antagonist teased for the upcoming Venom installment, we don’t know how much of a presence the character will actually have in Venom: The Last Dance.
Kraven the Hunter starring the mega-talented Aaron-Taylor Johnson is a film that should’ve been released a long time ago, but due to the strikes that took place last year, there was no choice but to delay this movie. This movie is just like any Sony Spider-Man movie and features nothing but a promise that Spider-Man will show up (which is never the case).
I don’t think general audiences will show up for Kraven the Hunter like they do for Venom simply because of interest.
The film features The Rhino as the antagonist, but that’s not enough even for hardcore Spider-Man fans. Kraven isn’t as well known, and it’ll have to jump over a hurdle financially since it releases only a week before Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. If these movies don’t work out with both critics and audiences, then Sony will need to course-correct their plans for their live-action Spider-Verse.
Sony Needs to Refocus Their Plans for the Spider-Verse
After Venom: The Last Dance and Kraven: the Hunter release in theaters, there is nothing in the pipeline for the Spider-Man film franchise until the highly-anticipated fourth Spider-Man film in the MCU and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. These movies will guarantee box office success if taken care of, but we won’t see these films come out for another 2-3 years respectively. Also, coming along is the upcoming live-action Prime Video series ‘Spider-Noir’ starring Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man: Noir, but that is only on the TV side. It’ll be interesting to see what other projects they’ll greenlight in 2025 after both of these movies come out.
Sony Should Let Marvel Studios Have Full Creative Control of the Spider-Man IP
My final point is not an unpopular opinion, but a necessary one. Sony should make a deal with Marvel Studios to have full creative control of the live-action Spider-Man film and TV rights if Venom: The Last Dance and Kraven: The Hunter aren’t successes with critics and the general audience. I’m not saying that it needs to be a deal where they sell the rights to Disney/Marvel Studios, but there should be some form of a new deal where they can distribute the films and get most of the money (like they already do), but allow the character of Spider-Man to have unlimited stories in the MCU.
Past failures like Madame Web and Morbius, proves that Sony doesn’t know what they’re doing without the help of Kevin Feige/Marvel Studios and it’ll only get worse if they continue to milk this IP until they can’t anymore.
