J.C. Chandor To Direct ‘Kraven The Hunter’ At Sony
by Erik Amaya
Gas up your Kravans. Kraven The Hunter is one step closer to becoming a feature film.
Variety reports director J.C. Chandor will helm the film featuring the fearsome foe of Spider-Man. Created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee in The Amazing Spider-Man #15, Sergei Kravinoff was the son of Russian aristocrats who immigrated to the US in 1917 as their country was swept up in the Soviet tide. Growing up with his family’s wealth and resources in tact, Sergei became a big game hunter. But unlike most people who choose that peculiar way of life, he learned to fight the animals he hunts with his bare hands.
Desiring to be the best hunter on the planet, he decided to hunt the rarest of all game: Spider-Man. It lead to a longstanding feud between the characters until Sergei died in 1987’s “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” He eventually got better, battling against Spider-Man once more and befriending the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl in recent years.
The character has appeared in numerous animated shows and video games, but never managed to become part of a live-action Spider-Man film. He was teased in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as part of the sequel’s plot set up a potential Sinister Six film. But following the critical beating of that film, Sony’s plans to expand their own Marvel universe stalled. With the success of Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Sony once again felt empowered to build its own comic book world and enlisted writer Richard Wenk to develop a script back in 2018. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway join him on scripting duties for the eventual Chandor-directed film.
Kraven joins other projects like Madame Web, a potential Spider-Woman film to be directed by Olivia Wilde, and potential films for Silver Sable and Black Cat on Sony’s development slate. Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, and a Spider-Verse sequel are set to be released in the next few years.