Sony Refused To Let Marvel Use This Classic Villain In Spider-Man: No Way Home

While "Spider-Man: No Way Home" saw the return of several of Peter Parker's multiversal foes from previous "Spider-Man" movies, it was originally going to introduce audiences to a classic comic book villain that we've still yet to see on the big screen. Sony just apparently had other plans.

According to "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios" by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards, "No Way Home" writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers had planned to debut Kraven the Hunter, one of Spider-Man's oldest enemies, in the 2021 movie, but they were told that the character "was unavailable until Sony established him in a solo movie." Luckily for potential future "No Way Home" sequels, the "Kraven the Hunter" solo movie is on its way, scheduled for release in August 2024. So it's possible Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven and Tom Holland's Peter could still cross paths down the line.

In fact, Holland has spoken in the past about how his third solo movie was meant to incorporate Kraven. When promoting "No Way Home," the actor told Collider that director Jon Watts presented him with the idea for a "really cool" Kraven movie, but Holland refused to elaborate more to avoid possible future spoilers. "I don't want to talk about it in case that movie ends up happening down the line, but it was fun," he said.

Sony and Marvel Studios have a complicated history when it comes to who owns Spider-Man and associated characters. Despite the wall-crawler appearing in Marvel Studios productions, Sony Pictures ultimately owns the movie rights after buying them from a struggling Marvel Comics in 1998. Now, the studio is attempting to build its own live-action "Spider-Man" universe with the likes of the "Venom" movies, "Morbius," "Madame Web," and "Kraven the Hunter," and it seems to be taking a slow and methodical approach in introducing its new players.

And this wasn't the first time the idea of introducing Kraven on film was shot down. In 2018, director Ryan Coogler revealed that he'd wanted to bring the character to live action in "Black Panther." "I've always loved Kraven the Hunter in almost every iteration," he told Yahoo! "So there was a moment where I was like, 'Can I grab Kraven?' and they [were] like, 'Nah, we don't have Kraven.'"

For now, it's unclear when — or even if — these versions of Kraven and Spider-Man will face off on the big screen, but it seems the possibility still exists once Sony has had a chance to establish the character on his own. Until then, we'll just have to wait to see if the hunter can find an audience.