In news sure not to excite anyone in particular, Kraven new Hunter is now in theaters. The latest and most likely last live-action spin-off flick for Sony’s unfortunate cinematic universe is limping towards a humiliating opening week-end with scathing reviews (and IGN’s), marking an ignominious end for what’s been one of the worst years ever for the superhero genre. While no major superhero franchise is at its best right now, with the MCU struggling to get back to the heights of the Infinity Saga and Warner Bros. betting big on James Gunn’s upcoming Superman reboot to get DC back on track, none have been as consistently lackluster as the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Or is it the Sony World from Ponder Emails (SUMC)?

Whatever this franchise was supposed to be called, it’s all but certainly over. The new Link recently reported that Sony Pictures is seeking to shutter this flailing enterprise after Kraven the Hunter so they can put all their focus on the upcoming Spider-Man 4 and Beyond the Spider-Verse. Good on them for cutting their losses and not subjecting us to any more of this nonsense, but the real question is: How did anyone think this was going to turn out differently? None of these movies were particularly good (sorry, Venom fans) and they all starred characters who are defined by their relationships to Spider-Man, a character they weren’t allowed to meet. This series was always going to fail, even if someone managed to wrangle a worthwhile movie out of the situation. Let’s take a look at why Sony’s Marvel Universe was doomed before it even started.

Spider-Man: Municipal War

The brand new Sony Universe has always been a mysterious beast on account of this new bizarre legal rights disease they is available when you look at the. Sony Images holds the film rights to the Examine-People business, but following the critical and you may economic frustration of Unbelievable Crawl-Man dos from inside the 2014, Sony made a decision to express Crawl-Man with Surprise Studios and enable Peter Parker to help you move toward the new MCU, where he could be because the come starred by the Tom Holland. But Sony got currently come development on the multiple twist-out of methods in TASM days, including Venom and you may Sinister Six movies. Sony obviously wished to mine a lot of Surprise characters it had the means to access, nevertheless center of attention of franchise, Spider-Guy, try now involved in the net of what is commercially its opponent.

The newest unicamente Crawl-Man video one appeared once was an indicator of the inactive-aggressive agreement that Disney and you may Sony struck. Homecoming and far At home were drowning within the records to your wide MCU, making certain it will be hard for Sony to simply take-out of your own arrangement versus upsetting admirers and you may shareholders who does matter as to the reasons Holland’s today well-accepted form of the smoothness is actually no stretched in identical community while the their Avengers family, whenever you are No chance Household put brute force to acquire brands off emails away from Sony’s non-MCU companies into legitimacy into the fuel of one’s multiverse. But nothing of these change you to Sony’s link with new wider Ponder brand was remarkably one-sided, something that also general audience had been able to cluing in to.

It’s laughable you to definitely a good cinematic universe filled christian filipina chat with Examine-Man characters doesn’t actually have Crawl-Guy inside.

The in association with Marvel logo that Sony was forced to use and the clear indication that they weren’t allowed to feature Spider-Man in their spin-off films created an omnipresent feeling of Sony’s films being a B-side to the MCU. Regardless of how many times Tom Hardy or others teased Venom meeting Spider-Man, the entire Venom trilogy appeared and ran without the two characters ever crossing paths. Same with Morbius, Madame Web, and now Kraven, with the closest thing to a proper Peter Parker appearance outside of Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene being him being born in Madame Web. It’s laughable that a cinematic universe filled with Spider-Man characters doesn’t actually have Spider-Man in it, but that fact ruined the series in more ways than one.