In news sure not to excite anyone in particular, Kraven the fresh Hunter is now in theaters. The latest and most likely last live-action spin-off flick for Sony’s unfortunate cinematic universe is sexy Portland, IA girl limping towards a embarrassing starting weekend with scathing reviews (and additionally 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 Universe regarding Question Characters (SUMC)?
Whatever this franchise was supposed to be called, it’s all but certainly over. The brand new 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.
Spider-Man: Civil Battle
The latest Sony Market has been a strange beast because of the bizarre legal rights problem it can be acquired within the. Sony Images retains the movie liberties into the Crawl-Guy team, but after the important and you will financial dissatisfaction of Unbelievable Crawl-Guy dos inside 2014, Sony decided to show Examine-Man having Surprise Studios and enable Peter Parker to swing with the the fresh new MCU, in which he or she is due to the fact started played by the Tom Holland. But Sony got currently started advancement towards multiple spin-away from programs when you look at the TASM weeks, like Venom and you can Sinister Half a dozen videos. Sony demonstrably desired to exploit more of the Ponder characters it had the means to access, however the center of attention of your operation, Spider-Guy, is today involved in the online of what actually is theoretically the competition.
This new solamente Examine-Guy video clips one to showed up after had been an indication of one’s inactive-aggressive arrangement you to definitely Disney and Sony struck. Homecoming and much From home was basically drowning from inside the recommendations with the broad MCU, making sure it could be difficult for Sony to just take out of one’s arrangement in place of hurtful admirers and you may shareholders who does concern as to why Holland’s today well-accepted version of the character are zero offered in identical industry because his Avengers buddies, when you find yourself Not a way Household put brute force locate designs out-of characters of Sony’s non-MCU franchises on legitimacy on fuel of your multiverse. But not one of that transform one to Sony’s connection to the fresh new large Wonder brand was remarkably one-sided, something that even standard watchers was indeed with the capacity of cluing in to.
It is laughable one to an excellent cinematic market full of Spider-Man characters will not have Examine-People with it.
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 arrived and 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.