As the SAG-AFRA and WGA strikes rage on, the highly awaited SSU (Sony’s Spider-Man Universe) projects are in for an indefinite delay as the upcoming films ‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spiderverse’ and ‘Kraven The Hunter’ have shifted their release dates.
The delays come as dual union strikes disrupt the day-to-day business of Hollywood, and the SAG-AFTRA and WGA conflict makes it particularly difficult to open major fall movies without the participation of star talent.
Furthermore, the fact that these movies too have cast and crew supporting the strikes also doesn’t make it any better.
Other Sony movies are also facing a delay such as ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’, ‘Bad Boys 4’ and even ‘Venom 3’.
According to The Hollywood Reporter: “Sony is the first major Hollywood studio to blink and make wholesale changes to its calendar since the SAG-AFTRA strike commenced July 14 (this doesn’t include smaller specialty films that have moved as a result of the dual writers and actors strike). Sony’s announcement confirms cinema owners’ worst fears that the calendar for both this year and next will see major disruptions.”
“Other studios are still in a wait-and-see mode in terms of their big fall and winter tentpoles, but there’s no telling how quickly that could change now that Sony has rearranged its schedule. The move could be seen as a sign that the unrest gripping Hollywood is not expected to have a resolution soon.”
” ‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse’ is the biggest strike casualty yet in terms of release date changes, since it is part of a prized and successful franchise. Sony is taking the movie off of the calendar for now, since actors cannot do any voice work.”
‘Kraven The Hunter’ on the other hand is a different story. Given that it is a collaboration between the MCU and SSU, this would mark the MCU’s first 18+ movie which would go in full carnage mode with heavy violence, gore and swearing in order to truly highlight the brutality and animalist rage of Kraven.
The Aaron Taylor-Johnson starrer gore fest is shifting its release date to August 30, 2024, from its initial planned date of October 6, 2023. As reported by Deadline, the push to next Labour Day is vital, studio insiders said, as leading man Taylor-Johnson would need to engage in a worldwide press tour to open the visceral action project in just over two months.
However, both ‘Beyond the Spiderverse’ and ‘Kraven The Hunter’ could face an even longer delay.
Earlier, ‘Dune 2’ and ‘Aquaman 2’ also have faced the prospects of a very likely indefinite delay due to their extremely high use of AI for creating CGI and scripts, which has angered many writers, designers and even producers. Though a delay for these two is not fully confirmed, it seems more likely than ever now that ‘Dune 2’ and ‘Aquaman 2’ are also going to be indefinitely delayed.
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