Sony’s Morbius Trick Failed, So Why Expect It to Work for Kraven?

With Kraven the Hunter finally out in theaters, the movie going public and the people who study the film industry are both getting answers to the question, “did Sony trick audiences again or did they finally pay off the thing they constantly tease?” The good news is that this is the final time, it appears that the company can use its – albeit loose – Marvel ties to try and boost its attendance numbers, not believing that the Kraven movie itself will do that, even with Russell Crowe, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Ariana Debose starring in the flick.

Starting with Morbius, the “trick” that Sony has used is tried and true at this point, and it tends to get people excited for a short period. After all, since these movies are all tied to Marvel, it makes some sense that the “trick” might finally be more of a treat. Considering how many times they’ve tried, one would think the trick might eventually pay off. It didn’t work for Morbius; the box office numbers were primarily atrocious. They tried it with Venom, too, but it didn’t work there either. So why would it work with Kraven the Hunter? The odds say that it won’t.

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Kraven the Hunter Tease Is Played Out

So what’s the trick that Sony tries with nearly every single Spiderverse movie? It’s hinting at the arrival and tie-in to the MCU’s Spider-Man movies. And while there used to simply be hints in the trailers or in the casting news, the company is being more overt about it these days. In the leadup to Kraven’s release, Aaron Taylor Johnson did a whirlwind press tour where he talked about the chances that his character might eventually clash horns with Spider-Man. And of course, he made it seem like it was a real possibility.

“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,”

This kind of thing is played out at this point. Marvel fans almost certainly remember all the work that Morbius did by including a short scene with Michael Keaton’s Vulture in some of the trailers. The implication was that the main villain from Spider-Man: Homecoming was somehow crossing over to the Sony Spiderverse and that could mean that the webslinger was coming too. If not in Morbius, perhaps in a sequel. Or the next Sony-Marvel film. Or perhaps, Morbius would be crossing over into the MCU. And then they payoff was nothing. No crossover.

They then tried to do it in the Venom films. There was the more overt hint at an eventual crossover using the multiverse in mid-credit and post-credit scenes. There was even an allusion to it at the beginning of Venom: The Last Dance. And yet again, there was no actual payoff. Lots of talk about going to New York, Eddie Brock even does finally go to New York at the end of the film. But there’s no mention of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No mention of Peter Parker and once again the tease and the trick lands with a thud.

Sony Spiderverse Should Stand On Its Own

The most frustrating part about this trick is that it seems to indicate that Sony doesn’t have anywhere near the confidence it pretends to when it comes to these movies. Of course, it’s become clear that they don’t have a ton of confidence as there is quite a bit of talk about how the Spiderverse is coming to an end. Which begs the question, why have they released so many projects that have performed so poorly?

There’s a definite argument to be made that one of the reasons the Sony cinematic universe has had as many problems as it has, is because it keeps teasing things that don’t happen in their movies. If the Spiderverse was allowed to stand on its own and simply be films that dealt with Marvel villains and heroes that are associated with Spider-Man it might have worked better.

Sony’s animated Miles Morales Spider-Verse movies are plenty popular. One has to wonder why the company didn’t decide to go with its own Spider-Man universe using Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker years ago. Or just allow characters like Morbius to be the big heroes. The approach by Sony doesn’t make a ton of sense and it makes even less sense to constantly tease something that is almost certainly not going to happen in order to try and get a few more people into the movie theaters. The jury is still out on whether it worked for Kraven the Hunter, but all indications is that it’s yet another swing and a miss.

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