Two of Sony’s upcoming blockbuster have officially been delayed. On Friday evening, the studio confirmed that the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe installment Kraven the Hunter has been delayed to Friday, December 13th. Kraven the Hunter was previously set to be delayed on August 30th, after already being pushed back by almost a year due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
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Additionally, the new Karate Kid movie, which originally held the December 13th release date, has been pushed back to May 30, 2025. Reports indicate that this decision was made to allow Karate Kid to follow the final season of its television spinoff, Cobra Kai.
What Is the New Karate Kid About?
The new Karate Kid, which was first announced to be in the works in 2022, is poised to be “the return of the original Karate Kid franchise.” The film will star Ralph Macchio, Jackie Chan, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Wyatt Oleff, Aramis Knight, and Ming-Na Wen.
“I know no other information,” Cobra Kai star Ralph Macchio said in an interview at the time. “It’s too early to tell what that story is [with the movie]. This is all, like, happening in real-time as you’re asking me this question.” The actor revealed that he has not been contacted about the project. “I think that [will be figured out] in the near future, or I may have nothing to do with it,” he explained with a laugh. “We’ll talk when I know what’s going on.”
What Is Kraven the Hunter About?
In Kraven the Hunter, Russian immigrant Sergei Kravinoff is on a mission to prove that he is the greatest hunter in the world. The film will star Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven, Arana DeBose as Calypso, and Fred Heichinger as Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon. Christopher Abbott, Alessandro Nivola, Russell Crowe, and Levi Miller have been cast in currently-unknown roles.
“He is a hunter and from that world of hunting and there’s so many aspects,” Taylor-Johnson told ComicBook.com in an interview last year. “What I love about that character is that what is he humanizing is that he has flaws, right? Kraven is a beautiful character. Sergei Kravinov is a beautiful character because it’s someone who’s really understanding themselves and has flaws. This is a character that was built ages ago and it’s in a new time and era, but yeah, is he going to be the hunter that we all want to see? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.”
Is Kraven the Hunter in the MCU?
Given Sony and Marvel Studios’ recurring co-production on the Spider-Man movies, and the bizarre franchise ties thanks to movies like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, it might be easy to assume that Kraven the Hunter exists within the MCU. While that does not currently seem to be the case, Sony has teased that its Spider-Man stories occupy a unique place in the world of superhero media.
“There are movies I would call adjunct to the Spider-Man universe,” Sony president Tom Rothman previously said of Sony’s Marvel plans (via Deadline). “That’s Kraven, which we’re shooting now, and Madame Web, which we’ll start in the spring with S.J. Clarkson directing. And then there are many Marvel characters that are standalone.”
As mentioned above, Kraven the Hunter is currently scheduled to be released exclusively in theaters on December 13th, while Karate Kid will debut on May 30, 2025.
