Kraven the Hunter will not be stalking his way into theaters this summer after all.
Sony Pictures has moved the R-rated SSU movie to the prime winter spot of December 13, 2024 (back from August 30, 2024). The film steps into the position previously occupied by Sony's The Karate Kid, which has now been pushed to May 30, 2025.
Kraven has been pushed back several times already, after initially being set to release in October of 2023. Most recently, the movie was hit with a delay due to the Hollywood strikes, as the studio did not want to release it without actors being able to do any promotion.
The dreadful box office performance of Madame Web has to have given the studio 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.