The following post contains minor SPOILERS for Kraven the Hunter.18 months ago, Sony introduced theirKraven the Hunter movie with a three minute red-band trailer filled with Aaron Taylor-Johnson running, punching, leaping, stabbing, slashing, biting, and flexing his impressively shredded washboard abs. (Not necessarily in that order.) The coming attraction built to an epic hero shot of Taylor-Johnson as Kraven dressed in the characters signature fur-rimmed vest as he lights the tip of a spear on fire while standing in a shadowy jungle cave.READ MORE: Every Marvel Movie Ever Made, Ranked From Worst to BestAbout a year later, Marvel posted their own trailer forKraven. It contained a mix of scenes from the first teaser, plus new footage including shots of Taylor-Johnson in Kravensfamous furry vest as hehunted someone or something with a bow and arrow in that same shadowy jungle. This clip gives even more centralplacement to Taylor-Johnsonignitingthe flaming spear. In this second trailer, it is the very last shot before the title card appears.But thisshot the focus of a big chunk ofKravens marketing campaign doesnt appear in the film at all.This isnt a matter ofKravenusing an alternate take or a different angle of this moment. Whatever junglesequence this shot came from, it wasremovedfrom the finished film, along with the stuff involving the bow and arrow.In the final cut ofKraven released to theaters, Taylor-Johnsonbarely even wearsKravens furry vest at all.Kraven the Hunter is hardly the first movie to hype itself with trailers filled with footage that didnt wind up in thecut released to theaters. I once made a list of 18such moments from the variousRogue One: A Star Wars Storyads. A few years ago, a bunch of Ana de Armas superfans sued Universal because their favorite actress was in the trailer for Danny BoylesYesterday but got cut from the theatrical release. (The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.)Kravenis not even the first Sony Spider-Man spinoff to pull this.Social media had a field daymaking fun of the teaser forMadame Web, particularly Dakota Johnson explaining that the movies villain, Ezekiel Sims, was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.If anyone bought a ticket toMadame Web specifically to see that absurd conversation play out on the big screen, they were out of luck. Between the trailer and the movies theatrical release, Sony snipped the line out of the film.Trailers that dont quite sync up to the final product have beena running theme in Sonys Spider-Manfranchise for more than a decade. The trailer forThe Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield featuredRhys Ifans Lizard saying, If you want the truth about your parents, Peter, come and get it. (In voiceover, he also adds Do you think what happened to you, Peter, was an accident? Do you have any idea what you really are?) Ultimately,The Amazing Spider-Manonlyincluded just a few brief teases of a vague conspiracy involving Peter Parkers parents. Fans had to wait untilThe Amazing Spider-Man 2to get the full story.Occasionally, studios shoot footage to use in trailers knowing full well it will never make it intoa movies final cut. The trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, centered on the scene where the various members of theteam areexamined and discussedby their prison guards. In the actual movie, Dave Bautistas Drax is absent, becausehe hadnt been introduced into the film yet.But heis inthe version of this scene in theGuardianstrailer, so that he audiences could be introduced to all the major characters at once.Guardians of the Galaxy was made byMarvel, a company famous for their meticulous long-term planning.Kraven (andMadame Weband The Amazing Spider-Man)was made by Sony, a company that ... is not.And so a pattern seems to have emerged: The trailer looks one way, the movie looks another not because of any overarching master plan, but because of the lack of one. The film is conceived in one direction (Kraven turns intothe Kravenof Marvel Comics at some point prior to the films final scene) and then gets released in another form (Kraven becomes the most recognizable form of Kraven at the last possible second.)SonySonyloading...I dont know whetherthatfeeling of indecisiveness stems from Sony brass wavering on their larger Spider-Man plans, or from changes demanded by Marvel (who shares cinematic custodyof Spider-Man with Sony), or both. Regardless, it explains why so many of their Spider-Man adjacent movies have been disappointing. When youplan a movie with one vision in mind, and then reconfigure it at the last minute into something else, thats rarely a recipe for creative success.Case in point: After loadingMadame Web,Morbius,Venom: The Last Dance, andKraven the Hunter with all sorts of teases of bigger villains whowill menace their heroes in the future, Sony is reportedlypulling the plug on the entire Sonys Spider-Man Universe. (In hindsight,building a massive cinematic universe around a character who does not and cannot actually appear in any of its movies may have been a slight error in judgment.)If you wanted to seehow Knull would get revenge on Eddie Brock, orwhether Morbius and Vulture would start the Sinister Six, youre out of luck. (Remember when Michael Keatons Vulture was magically transported from the MCU to the Sony universe? Now hes trapped there forever!) Even if you get yourself a spear with a flaming tip to guide you, you willneverfind the payoffs to the setups in these Sony Spider-Man films.The Most Underrated Movies of 2024Lets give some love to the 2024 films that deserved more attention.