Sony has just made an addition to its upcoming Kraven The Hunter led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Russell Crowe (Unhinged) has signed on to star in the film.
Kraven is part of Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, using what characters are available to them through their ownership of the Spider-Man film rights. Kraven is the latest project from Sony in their Spider-Man-less Marvel universe after the two Venom films and April’s Morbius starring Jared Leto. In addition to Kraven, Sony recently cast Dakota Johnson as the title character in Madame Web.
Sony has not said who Crowe will play, but many of the main characters are said to be members of Kraven’s family so it could be likely that Crowe will end up being Kraven’s father.
Kraven is one of Spider-Man’s most popular and well-known villains introduced during Spider-Man’s early career in Amazing Spider-Man #15 from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Born in Russia, Kraven became a big-game hunter who hunted some of the world’s most deadliest creatures for fame. He decided to hunt Spider-Man after hearing stories of New York City’s resident wall-crawler and how dangerous he was, desiring to prove he was the most dangerous man in the world. Since then, he has often fought against Spider-Man and in the memorable story Kraven’s Last Hunt actually defeated Spidey and buried him alive only for Spidey to dig himself out of his own grave.
Interestingly enough, Kraven was envisioned as the original villain for Spider-Man: No Way Home before the multiverse-spanning story and returning actors from across the Spider-Man franchise was finalized.
Kraven The Hunter will be directed by J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier) from a script by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing.
Kraven the Hunter is set for release on January 13th 2023.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
Originally published February 10, 2022. Updated February 9, 2022.
