The Marvel Movie That Killed Sony's Spider-Man Universe Is Coming to Disney Plus
Come for Kraven's abs, stay for Marvel's second-weirdest Rhino
2024 was a banner year for Sony's Spider-Man Universe, with no less than three Spidey-adjacent spinoffs released in theaters: Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance, and Kraven the Hunter. All three films were met with acidic critical response, and all but one — the third Venom movie — were box office bombs. It seems that Kraven the Hunter's biggest prey was Sony Pictures' Marvel-esque ambitions: The Aaron Taylor-Johnson-led superhero movie effectively killed the "SSU" after grossing just $62 million globally.
Soon, Disney Plus subscribers will get to see what all the fuss was(n't) about, as Kraven the Hunter is coming to Disney's streaming service in September after its run on Netflix. It's a must-watch if you love a hot mess.
The addition of Kraven the Hunter to Disney Plus will almost complete Disney's collection of Sony's Spider-Man Universe films. Subscribers already have access to Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, and Madame Web. Venom: The Last Dance, which is leaving Netflix soon, is on its way to Disney Plus imminently. Sony's mainline Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland are also on Disney Plus.
Why you should watch Kraven the Hunter on Disney Plus
While the Tom Hardy-led Venom movies are largely bad-but-wacky fun and Madame Web is so bad it's just bad, Kraven the Hunter is a much more puzzling film. Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven not as a big-game hunter eager to defeat Spider-Man to prove his hunting prowess, but as a vigilante who takes down criminals. While promoting the film, Taylor-Johnson described his take on the comic book supervillain as an apex predator, a "protector of the natural world," and an "animal lover."
Kraven the Hunter pulls in plenty of Spider-Man-adjacent characters, including the Chameleon, played by Fred Hechinger, who has an astounding evolution in the movie; Calypso, a voodoo practitioner AND lawyer, played by Ariana DeBose; and Russell Crowe doing a Russian accent. The highlight of the film is Alessandro Nivola's turn as Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino. After a previous take on the character played by Paul Giamatti (in a rhino mech suit!) in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Nivola's Rhino is somehow even stranger, as seen in the following clip, which will make no sense in or out of context.
Make no mistake: Kraven the Hunter is not a "good" movie. It earns its 15% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and every delay, reshoot, and ill-advised studio choice about making a Kraven the Hunter movie without Spider-Man is on the screen. Viewers will take no small amount of satisfaction in seeing Kraven's failure play out over the course of 122 minutes, especially knowing that Ryan Coogler was denied access to Kraven the Hunter for his Black Panther movies.
Marvel fans will also "enjoy" Kraven the Hunter for another reason. They'll get a look at Christopher Abbott in Marvel mode ahead of his turn as Professor Charles Xavier in Marvel Studios' upcoming X-Men film. Abbott plays a relatively obscure Marvel character named the Foreigner — an assassin who can slow time... through hypnosis? — in Kraven the Hunter.
Kraven the Hunter is a bizarre movie that doesn't ultimately work, but it's worth the hate-watch if you're a Disney Plus subscriber who has the curiosity to wade into Sony's now-dead Spider-Man Universe.
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day already hitting $2 billion at the box office and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse looking promising ahead of its 2027 release, hopefully Sony Pictures has learned the right lessons about what to do with and without access to Spider-Man. Kraven the Hunter is undeniably not it, but as the final nail in the coffin for Sony's Spider-Man Universe, it's worth a watch to understand how everything went so terribly wrong.
Kraven the Hunter comes to Disney Plus on Sept. 13.