You'd be forgiven for forgetting that Kraven the Hunter is set to hit theaters later this year since Sony Pictures has barely marketed the movie at all following the release of Madame Web, but two months out from release, promotion has finally picked up with a red-band TV spot.
Though most of the footage has carried over from previous teasers, there are a couple of new shots of Aaron Taylor-Johnson's titular "villain" in action as he does some bloody damage with a bear-trap.
Earlier this year, the studio moved the Kraven to the prime winter spot of December 13, 2024 (back from August 30, 2024). The movie had been pushed back several times already, after initially being set to release in October of last year.
The dreadful box office performance of Madame Web has to have given Sony cause for concern, and if Kraven tanks, it may be the final nail in the SSU's coffin.
Although both Venom movies and Morbius were supposed to be part of the same universe and included some ties to the MCU (Michael Keaton's appearance as Vulture in a post-credits scene, for example), Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter and Venom: The Last Dance are reportedly being referred to internally and marketed as "standalone" projects.
“There may be some hesitation to emphasize the interconnectedness of these movies,” Jeff Gomez, an executive transmedia producer at Starlight Runner who worked with Sony on Spider-Man: Homecoming, said in a recent interview. “They’ve talked about it before, and it didn’t work out.”
This doesn't mean the movies won't interconnect in any way, as it may simply indicate that Sony would rather downplay their ties to previously established cinematic universes.
“Kraven the Hunter is the visceral story about how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Set before his notorious vendetta with Spider-Man, Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the titular character in the R-rated film.”
Kraven the Hunter is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). The film was directed by J. C. Chandor and written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk.
In addition to Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role, Ariana DeBose will play Calypso, a voodoo priestess and Kraven's on-off love interest (in the comics, at least); Fred Hechinger is Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka the Chameleon, who is Kraven's half-brother; Alessandro Nivola will play Aleksei Sytsevich, aka the Rhino, and Christopher Abbott will portray another villain known as the Foreigner.
Sony's next "SMU" movie has been rated R for "Strong bloody violence, and language."