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Kraven the Hunter Film Moving Forward At Sony With Equalizer Writer
Sony moves forward with a Kraven the Hunter standalone movie, setting writer Richard Wenk to pen the script for the Spider-Man villain's solo film. In 2015, it was announced that Sony and Marvel Studios struck a deal to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the studios sharing the character. However, Sony retained the rights to Spider-Man and his related Marvel Comics characters. Now, Sony is putting those rights to use by launching their own series of superhero films following these characters. The first hits theaters later this year with Venom, but others are in the works, including a Silver Sable and Black Cat movie titled Silver & Black, Morbius the Living Vampire, and Silk.
Although Silver & Black has a writer and director attached in Gina Prince-Bythewood and was originally set to release in early 2019, it hasn't started filming yet as script rewrites are being done. Meanwhile, Morbius is moving forward by casting Jared Leto in the lead role and setting director Daniel Espinosa to helm. There's been little forward momentum on any of the other Sony Marvel movies, but it looks like Kraven the Hunter is another priority for the studio.
Collider reports Sony is bringing in The Equalizer and The Equalizer 2 writer Richard Wenk to pen the script for their Kraven the Hunter movie. It was previously reported that a Kraven movie was in the works alongside a Mysterio film, but with the latter now expected to appear as the villain in Marvel Studios' Spider-Man: Far From Home, it seems Sony is focusing on the former antagonist. It's unclear what the Kraven movie will entail, though, since it seems unlikely Spider-Man will appear as the webslinger is busy in the MCU.
As Collider's report goes on to speculate, however, the future of the Kraven movie depends largely on the success of Venom. Since the Tom Hardy-starring anti-hero film will be the first of Sony's villain-focused Spider-Man offshoots, it's likely the studio is using it to test the viability of their Marvel villain movies. So if Venom is a success, they may move forward much quicker on the various Marvel properties that are currently in development. And if Venom isn't a success, Sony may reevaluate their current plan and try a different approach.
As of now, Venom, Morbius and Kraven look to be heading in a darker, more violent direction. It's been speculated Venom may be R-rated, meaning Sony could be following in the vein of 20th Century Fox's Deadpool and Logan, but the movie has yet to receive an official rating. If Venom is rated R and is a success, Sony may look to capitalize on the dearth of hard-R comic book superhero movies currently being planned and may go that route with their Morbius and Kraven projects.
With that being said, there's still a great deal unknown about both Morbius and Kraven as well as Sony's other Marvel projects that are in various stages of development. As the studio moves forward on their Marvel films and once Venom releases, more will no doubt be revealed in terms of what exactly Sony is planning for their upcoming superhero slate.
Release Dates:
. Venom (2018) release date: Oct 05, 2018
. Silver and Black (2019) release date: Feb 08, 2019
