Kraven the hunter » J-Movies

Kraven the Hunter movie is an upcoming American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment, Arad Productions, and Matt Tolmach Productions, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be the sixth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU). The film was directed by J. C. Chandor from a screenplay by Richard Wenk and the writing team of Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. It stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role alongside Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe.

Kraven was considered for film appearances several times before Sony became interested in a standalone film for the character, as part of their new shared universe, in 2017. Wenk was hired in August 2018, with Marcum and Holloway joining later. Chandor entered negotiations to direct in August 2020, and was confirmed in May 2021 when Taylor-Johnson was cast. Further casting took place in early 2022, before filming began in late March in London, England and concluded by mid-June. Shooting also occurred in Iceland, and was expected to occur in Glasgow.

Kraven the Hunter is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 13, 2024.

Kraven shares a complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff. This sets him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.^[2]

• Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven:
  A big-game hunter.^[3][4] Taylor-Johnson described his take on the character as a conservationist,^[5] a “protector of the natural world”, and an “animal lover”.^[6] Levi Miller portrays a young Sergei.^[7]
• Ariana DeBose as Calypso: A voodoo priestess and Kraven’s love interest.^[8][9]
• Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon: Kraven’s estranged half-brother who is a master of disguise.^[10][11]
• Alessandro Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino: A Russian mercenary who can turn into a human-rhino hybrid.^[12][13]
• Christopher Abbott as the Foreigner: A mercenary and assassin.^[14]
• Russell Crowe as Nikolai Kravinoff: Kraven’s estranged father.^[12][13][15]

Director Sam Raimi planned to include the Marvel Comics character Kraven the Hunter in his fourth Spider-Man film before that project was cancelled in favor of rebooting the franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).^[16] Sony Pictures announced plans in December 2013 for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) to establish a shared universe—inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)—based on the Marvel properties they held the rights to.^[17] Kraven was teased in that film,^[18] with its director Marc Webb expressing interest in seeing the character appear on film.^[19] In February 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios announced a new partnership to co-produce the film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), and integrate the Spider-Man character with Marvel’s MCU.^[20] Sony announced their own shared universe, “Sony’s Spider-Man Universe“,^[21] in May 2017.^[22] Sony intended this to be “adjunct” to their MCU Spider-Man films,^[23] featuring Spider-Man related properties beginning with Venom (2018).^[22] The studio was considering a Kraven film for the universe.^[24] Before learning that Sony had the film rights for Kraven, director Ryan Coogler hoped to include the character in his MCU film Black Panther (2018) because of a fight between Black Panther and Kraven in Christopher Priest‘s Black Panther comic book run.^[25]

Richard Wenk was hired to write a screenplay for Kraven the Hunter in August 2018, a month after the successful release of Sony’s The Equalizer 2 (2018), which he wrote. The project was billed as “the next chapter” of Sony’s shared universe.^[4][26] Wenk was tasked with introducing Kraven to audiences and figuring out which character he could hunt in the film since Spider-Man, considered to be Kraven’s “white whale” in the comic books, was unlikely to appear due to the MCU deal. Whether the film would target adult audiences would depend on the audience response to Venom‘s darker approach.^[4] In October, Wenk said he was “cracking” the story and tone of the film before beginning scripting. He intended to adhere to the character’s comic book lore, including by featuring Kraven fighting Spider-Man. Wenk said Sony intended to adapt the Kraven’s Last Hunt comic book storyline, and there were ongoing discussions over whether to do that in this film or a later one. Wenk compared the latter approach to the two-part film Kill Bill (2003/2004). He expressed interest in having Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua join the film; Fuqua considered directing Sony’s Marvel-based film Morbius (2022), and would decide on directing Kraven based on the script.^[27] Sony confirmed that a film featuring Kraven was in development in March 2019.^[28]

Jon Watts, director of Homecoming and its sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), expressed interest in featuring Kraven in a potential third Spider-Man film set within the MCU;^[29] Watts pitched a film pitting Peter Parker / Spider-Man against Kraven to Spider-Man star Tom Holland, but this idea was abandoned in favor of the story of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).^[30] By August 2020, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway had re-written the script, after doing uncredited rewrites for Morbius.^[31][32] At that time, J. C. Chandor entered talks to direct the film,^[31] while Matt Tolmach, Avi Arad, and David Householter were set as producers.^[31][33] Chandor was confirmed as director in May 2021, when Aaron Taylor-Johnson was cast to star as Kraven,^[3] and signed on to portray the character in multiple films.^[3] Sony had previously approached actors such as Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, John David Washington and Adam Driver for the role,^[34] but Sony executives moved quickly to cast Taylor-Johnson after they were “blow[n] away” by early footage of him in the film Bullet Train (2022). Taylor-Johnson began negotiations shortly after an initial phone call with Chandor and Tolmach.^[35][36][37] By July, Jodie Turner-Smith was reportedly in talks to portray Kraven’s love interest, Calypso.^[38] That October, Holland said he and Pascal had discussed him potentially reprising his role as Spider-Man in the film.^[39]

Kraven the Hunter is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on December 13, 2024, in IMAX and premium large formats (PLFs).^[57] It was previously scheduled for January 13, 2023,^[3] October 6, 2023,^[53] and August 30, 2024.^[55]

Trailer of kraven the hunter