SPIDER-MAN Writer Reveals Scrapped “Home Alone With Kraven” and Matt Murdock Courtroom Comedy Movie Ideas

Before Spider-Man: Brand New Day became the Jean Grey-centric story that went on to become the highest-grossing movie ever at the domestic box office, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers kicked around some wildly different ideas for Peter Parker.

How different? At one point, Kraven the Hunter was going to turn New York City into a giant death trap for Spider-Man. Another version had Peter abandoning New York, only to return after discovering someone had stolen his entire superhero identity, forcing him to hire Matt Murdock and take the fake Spidey to court.

McKenna, who has worked on every Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, recently discussed the abandoned concepts on the Bulwark Goes to Hollywood podcast.

He explained that finding villains for both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Brand New Day could get complicated because of the arrangement between Sony and Marvel Studios involving Spider-Man and his supporting characters.

Kraven was one character McKenna and Sommers thought they could play with, and their idea sounds like it could have made for one hell of a fun Spider-Man movie!

"We were told they were never going to make a standalone Kraven movie… and we had fun ways to get into the Kraven character," McKenna said. "Kraven turning New York City into, like, a Home Alone trap for Spider-Man, where he's got booby traps everywhere, and [is] just hunting down Peter Parker.

“He could be either hired by someone, and maybe [you] don't even have to make him the centerpiece villain, but just someone who's stalking him the entire movie."

The idea of Kraven hunting Peter across New York while filling the city with elaborate traps is a great story for the character. Kraven wouldn't even need to be the primary villain. He could simply remain on Peter's trail throughout the story, waiting for his chance to strike.

Unfortunately for McKenna and Sommers, Sony had other plans for the character. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's standalone Kraven the Hunter was already moving forward, which effectively took him off the board.

"And then it was a joke. It was like, 'Oh no, Sony's making a standalone Kraven movie.' Like, you've got to be kidding me," McKenna said.

The writers eventually found themselves exploring equally strange territory while developing Brand New Day. Before Jean Grey became central to the movie, one version of the story sent Peter Parker far away from New York.

"We had Peter so done with New York with his past that he goes off and sort of is a badass hero in Southeast Asia, taking down Southeast Asian gangs," McKenna explained.

"He's living on a boat, like on a river, and cleaning it, fixing the engine, making his own web fluid. And then he gets a message in a video about Spider-Man back in New York, like charming fans. He's like, 'What?' There's some imposter in New York.

"So then he has to go all the way back to New York to deal with this imposter, like 'Who is this guy?' And he gets there, and he finds out this guy is using my web fluid, and he's using my suit. And it turns out the guy has done what Peter Parker had never done, where he actually had copyrighted the Spider-Man brand, like trademarked it, and had his web fluid.

“Then [Peter] had to hire Matt Murdock as a lawyer to help him fight. Because Peter Parker gets a cease-and-desist from this other guy [saying] you can't pretend that you're Spider-Man. And so it began this whole thing that was pretty fun, but it was just a different story."

That would've taken the MCU's Spider-Man franchise into full-on legal comedy territory. Peter Parker returning home to discover another guy has trademarked Spider-Man, stolen his technology, and legally ordered the actual Spider-Man to stop calling himself Spider-Man is such a ridiculous problem for Peter to have.

Bringing Matt Murdock into the fight makes it even better. Instead of Daredevil and Spider-Man immediately teaming up to punch criminals, Peter would've needed Murdock's legal skills to prove that he owns an identity he never bothered to legally protect.

Neither concept ultimately survived development, but things worked out pretty well for Sony and Marvel Studios. Spider-Man: Brand New Day went on to pass Star Wars: The Force Awakens and become the highest-grossing movie in domestic box-office history.

Still, "Home Alone with Kraven" is one discarded Spider-Man idea that's hard not to want to see. With another Spider-Man movie almost inevitable after the massive success of Brand New Day, maybe McKenna and Sommers will eventually get another shot at some of these unused concepts.