Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa finds himself going up against several villains in Marvel’s latest superhero blockbuster Black Panther, but it seems that director Ryan Coogler originally wanted to feature one other fan-favourite bad guy in Kraven the Hunter!
“Being a Marvel fan, you want to grab all the characters,” Coogler told Yahoo! Movies. “You realise there’s contractual things. You don’t have that character. There was a Christopher Priest run that was pretty heavy, there’s a big scene where Panther’s fighting Kraven, Kraven the Hunter.”
“I’ve always loved Kraven the Hunter in almost every iteration. So there was a moment – ‘Can I grab Kraven?’ – and they were ‘Nah, you don’t have Kraven.’ He was one where I thought ‘Oh, man.’ But I don’t even know if he would have worked in the movie we ended up with, this was the early days.”
As it happens, Sony is reportedly looking to use Kraven as part of its shared Spider-Man spinoff universe, which likely explains why the character wasn’t available to Coogler for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ review of Black Panther here
After the events of Captain America: Civil War, King T’Challa returnsohome to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country’s new leader. However, T’Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from factions within his own country. When two foes conspire to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must team up with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Dora Milaje, Wakandan special forces, to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war.
Black Panther sees Ryan Coogler (Creed) directing Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa alongside Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Forest Whitaker as Zuri, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Sterling K. Brown as N’Jobu, John Kani as King T’Chaka and Nabiyah Be as Nightshade. The film is set for release on February 12th in the UK and on February 16th in the States.
