Aaron Taylor-Johnson To Star In Sony’s ‘Kraven The Hunter’
by Erik Amaya
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is going from Kick-Ass to the Kravan.
Deadline reports the actor will star in Sony’s Kraven the Hunter — uniting the former Quicksilver with another Marvel character. The film is, of course, based on the Spider-Man villain created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee in The Amazing Spider-Man #15. According to his backstory, 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 joined him on scripting duties and last August, director J.C. Chandor signed up to helm the pictures.
Kraven is part of Sony ambitious Spider-Man slate, which includes Madame Web, a potential Spider-Woman film to be directed by Olivia Wilde, and potential films for Silver Sable and Black Cat. They join they already complete Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius, and a Spider-Verse sequel, as part of “Sony Pictures Universe of Spider-Man Characters,” a name we’re still find dubious.
Kraven the Hunter is set for release on January 13th, 2023.
