Sony actor teases the Spider-Man crossover audiences deserve

Sony's Spider-Man Universe is infamously known for lacking its own version of the wall-crawler, which has done no good whatsoever. So far, audiences have watched origin stories for Venom, Morbius, and Madame Web, and yet none of them have come face-to-face with the friendly neighborhood hero. To top things off, director J. C. Chandor recently confirmed the upcoming Kraven the Hunter is an "isolated" movie that won't connect to other narratives, so we can assume Sergei Kravinoff won't get to hunt his biggest foe yet. It's an unfortunate situation, but one that could change in the future as teased by Aaron Taylor-Johnson himself.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson says Kraven should go toe-to-toe with Spidey

Screen Rant recently got the chance to interview Kraven himself, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Naturally, one of the questions that came up was if Sergei Kravinoff needs to hunt Spider-Man to bring closure to his villain arc. While nothing was outright confirmed or denied, Aaron did tease his character has "legs to go on":

"What we've set up in this story is a really rich character that definitely has the legs to go on and do more damage. I think he should go toe-to-toe with some superheroes that we know. One of my favorite stories is Kraven's Last Hunt (...) and we're basically showing the birth of that and how he becomes the villain that we then come to know (...) I think it could be an audience sort of villain favorite, you know, definitely to go toe-to-toe with some other people down the line"

It's worth remembering director J. C. Chandor also mentioned that they'll "have opportunities to do a lot of fun things" after the release of Kraven the Hunter. So it seems like the plan right now is to wait and see how the movie performs at the box office, and then determine what the future holds for the character. However, things aren't looking very promising even if the eight opening minutes look surprisingly good. Early projections are estimating Sony's latest project will open to $20-$25 million domestically, which is even less than Morbius earned (and we all know that film wasn't a box-office hit by any means).

Interest in the SSU is undeniably dying, as even Venom: The Last Dance — the last entry in a franchise that stars a more popular villain — underperformed at the box office. Granted, it will still result in a profit for Sony, but as of now, it's the less-grossing movie in the trilogy. Something needs to change going forward, and the obvious path would consist of letting these villains fight Spider-Man. Kraven's Last Hunt is one of the most popular and beloved Spidey comic book storylines ever, so a big-screen adaptation would surely generate a lot of excitement. Besides, it's been a long time coming for these two characters.

Sam Raimi originally wanted Sergei Kravinoff as an antagonist in Spider-Man 4. Furthermore, Kraven was supposed to be one of the members of the Sinister Six in The Amazing Spider-Man universe. However, those stories were axed before they ever saw the light of day, and audiences still haven't seen Spidey cross paths with the world's greatest hunter in live-action. But hey, at least he's fought the Green Goblin three different times across three different franchises. It's unfortunate to say but, given that there's no clear path going forward, it's time for Sony to figure out what they really want to do with their "cinematographic universe" or return the rights to Marvel once and for all.

Kraven the Hunter will be released on Dec. 13, 2024.