Sony Expands Their Spider-Verse, Hires Writer For Their 'Kraven The Hunter' Movie
Sony has a plan. Maybe. They're hell-bent on making their Spider-Verse – which is separate from the MCU's Spider-Man related films – work. Tom Hardy and his big CGI tongue are coming to theaters this year with Venom. And then there's the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, also due out this year. And now, here's something for the future: a Kraven the Hunter movie. Sony has tapped Equalizer 2 writer Richard Wenk to pen the script for the film about the Spider-Man villain.
Collider has the scoop on the Kraven the Hunter movie. This isn't entirely new – back in 2017, a report indicated that Sony was interested in making a Kraven movie along with Silver & Black. Since then, however, the Silver & Black movie has been removed from Sony's schedule. But it looks like Kraven is becoming a reality.
Kraven the Hunter, aka Sergei Kravinoff, first appeared in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man in 1964. The character (per Wikipedia) "is a maniacal big game hunter who seeks to defeat Spider-Man to prove that he is the greatest hunter in the world. Unlike other hunters, he typically disdains the use of guns or bow and arrows, preferring to take down large dangerous animals with his bare hands. He also lives by a code of honor of sorts, choosing to hunt his game fairly. He consumes a mystical serum to give himself enhanced strength and dramatically slow the aging process."
Sony wants Richard Wenk, who wrote the recently released The Equalizer 2, to handle script duties. The fact that the studio has lined-up a writer indicates they're keen on making this a reality. But as Collider adds, the future of Sony's Spider-Verse is riding on Venom. Like Kraven, Venom is another Spidey spin-off focused on a character who is traditionally a Spider-Man villain. If Venom tanks, it's likely Sony will have second-thoughts about this idea. For now, though, it's full steam ahead.
The Spider-Verse is a strange beast. While Sony and Marvel Studios struck a deal to bring Spider-Man into the MCU, the Spider-Verse is its own separate thing. It's unlikely Tom Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man will be showing up anytime soon in Sony's films. Instead, they're choosing to focus on spin-offs, or films set in alternate dimensions – like the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The studio has been dabbling with the idea of villainous spin-offs for a while now. When Spider-Man was rebooted at Sony with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony had big dreams of launching a whole cinematic universe that would include a Sinister Six movie (which would've included Kraven as a character). But The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a disappointment, and the future of Spider-Man spin-offs was uncertain for a while. Now, they're forging ahead.
Will any of this work? Who knows!. Like Venom, it's hard to say if Kraven can work on the big screen without Spider-Man to face-off against. While buzz surrounding Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse seems positive, the reaction to Venom has been decidedly mixed. But there's always a possibility Venom will end up raking in boffo box office, which would encourage Sony to continue down their villain spin-off path.