Sergei Kravinoff a.k.a. Kraven, a classic Spider-Man villain, and a founding member of the Sinister Six, has long been rumored to make his big-screen debut. In Marvel Comics, Kraven is depicted as a Russian nobleman whose family was compelled to immigrate to America in 1917 due to the February Revolution. Kraven became an obsessive big game hunter and, after mastering the sport, made Spider-Man his target in an effort to establish himself as the world’s best hunter. While previous iterations of the Spider-Man franchise have tried to bring the character to life, including Marc Webb‘s The Amazing Spider-Man movies, the character has yet to see the light of day on the silver screen. That is until now.
Shortly before the first Venom movie was released, Sony put several spin-off films in development, one of those being Kraven the Hunter. After numerous delays, due to both the COVID-19 pandemic, and the dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Kraven is finally about to make his feature film debut. Here’s what you need to know about the iconic villain’s movie debut.
9 Does ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Have a Release Date?
Kraven the Hunter is set to hit theaters on Friday, December 13, 2024. The R-rated superhero flick will be opening up against the animated spin-off movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
Kraven the Hunter has gone through numerous delays, having previously been scheduled for release on January 13, 2023; October 6, 2023; and August 30, 2024.
While a movie changing release dates multiple times can often be a cause for concern (The New Mutants comes to mind), sometimes it is done to make the movie better and that is exactly what happened with Kraven the Hunter. At least, according to producer Matt Tolmach, who spoke about the movie’s delay in an exclusive interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub. Tolmach said:
”
Kraven
moved to Christmas because we’re excited about it and Christmas is the best release period there is, when you get people with time to go back to the movies over and over again. That was a real reflection of how the studio felt about the movie. We’re really excited. But that’s a great move that reflects just the feeling about the movie.”
This was further confirmed in a piece from Deadline Hollywood, where it was reported that Chandor used the movie’s numerous delays to sharpen the film’s characters and tighten the plot with reshoots. The delay was also done in part in the wake of the critical and financial disaster of Madame Web, with Sony hoping that Kraven can recapture the box office success of its Venom movies.
8 Will ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Be in Theaters or Streaming?
Kraven the Hunter will be released exclusively in movie theaters in December 2024.
The film will eventually be available to stream on Netflix after its theatrical window as well as after it hits video-on-demand and home video. This is thanks to a deal that was struck between Netflix and Sony back in April 2021 which gives the streaming service the exclusive pay-one window for new films from Sony.
7 What Will ‘Kraven the Hunter’ be Rated?
Kraven the Hunter has officially been rated R by the MPA for “strong bloody violence, and language.”
During the film’s CinemaCon presentation in 2023, Taylor-Johnson revealed that Kraven the Hunter will be rated R, making it the first film in Sony’s Spider-Man universe to receive such a rating. While many fans hoped that the Venom movies would warrant an R-rating, both were slapped with a PG-13 rating, while Morbius was also rated PG-13. While most superhero films are rated PG-13, the success of the Deadpool films encouraged studios to aim for the rating more frequently with their superhero movies, with films like Logan, Joker, Birds of Prey, The Suicide Squad, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, all landing R-ratings.
6 How Long Is ‘Kraven the Hunter’?
Kraven the Hunter will have a runtime of 127 minutes (2 hours and 7 minutes), which makes it the longest movie in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Surpassing the runtime of Madame Web by 11 minutes.
5 Is There a Trailer for ‘Kraven the Hunter’?
The first trailer for Kraven The Hunter was released on June 19, 2023. The three-minute trailer reveals that the film will be an origin story for the hunter. Seeing a young Kraven encounter a mighty lion only to gain animal-like powers is an interesting twist on the Spider-Man mythos.
Sony Pictures released the second trailer for Kraven the Hunter on August 16, 2024, giving our first look at the movie’s main antagonist: The Rhino.
4 Who Stars in ‘Kraven the Hunter’?
|
Aaron Taylor-Johnson |
Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven |
|
Ariana DeBose |
Calypso Ezili |
|
Fred Hechinger |
Dmitri Smerdyakov/Chameleon |
|
Alessandro Nivola |
Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino |
|
Christopher Abbott |
The Foreigner |
|
Russell Crowe |
Nikolai Kravinoff |
For the character of Kraven, Sony approached celebrities including Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, John David Washington, and Adam Driver. However, the producers swiftly decided to cast Aaron Taylor-Johnson after being blown away by early footage of his role in the 2022 action-comedy Bullet Train. He is most known for playing the title character in Kick-Ass and its sequel as well as Pietro Maximoff in Avengers: Age of Ultron in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In March 2022, it was announced that Academy Award-winning actress Ariana DeBose would be taking on the role of Calypso. In the comics, Calypso serves Kraven’s love interest and a voodoo priestess who uses magic potions. In Marvel Comics, Calypso is typically portrayed as Spider-Man’s adversary. Fans can anticipate that the filmmakers will explore the couple’s romantic relationship in the movie. DeBose received tremendous acclaim for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Additionally, she played Alyssa Greene in Ryan Murphy’s musical movie The Prom and Emma Tate in the Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon!. Jodie Turner-Smith was initially rumored to be playing the role of Calypso
Alessandro Nivola was recently revealed to be playing the film’s main villain, the iconic Spider-Man villain the Rhino. The character was previously portrayed by Paul Giamatti in 2014 in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but Nivola’s take on the Rhino will be much different. With a vast list of acting achievements, Nivola is most known for his role as Nicolas Cage’s brother Pollux Troy in John Woo’s 1997 film Face/Off. He starred alongside Christian Bale and Margot Robbie in David O. Russell’sAmsterdam in 2022, as well in the comedy Spin Me Round alongside Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza. His other well-known films are One Percent More Humid and The Red Sea Diving Resort.
The other antagonist will be played by Christopher Abbott, which will reportedly be the Foreigner. Nivola is known for playing Mason Tannetti in The Sinner and Charlie Dattolo in the HBO comedy-drama series Girls. His other well-known movies are On the Count of Three, The Sleepwalker, and Hello I Must Be Going.
Fred Hechinger joined the cast of Kraven the Hunter in February 2022 as Dmitri Smerdyakov a.k.a. Chameleon, who is Kraven’s half-brother. The supervillain Chameleon is the first ever adversary of Spider-Man in Marvel Comics. He is a master of disguises, known for his ability to impersonate virtually anybody. He is best known for playing Trevor in Eighth Grade, John Calley in News of the World, and Ethan Russell in The Woman in the Window. Additionally, he appeared in the first season of the renowned HBO anthology series The White Lotus as well as the Fear Street Trilogy. Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee who is most known for playing the role of Peter in The Power of the Dog and Nightcrawler in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix was initially approached for the role, but ultimately turned the role down.
Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe will be playing the role of Kraven’s father, with whom he has a complicated relationship with. This won’t be Crowe’s first venture into the world of superheroes, he previously played Jor-El, the father of Superman, in Man of Steel and he most recently played Zeus in Thor: Love & Thunder. Up-and-coming star Levi Miller stars as a younger Kraven.
3 What Is ‘Kraven the Hunter’ About?
The official plot synopsis via Sony Pictures reads:
Kraven the Hunter
is the action-packed, R-rated, standalone story of how one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts 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.
Taylor-Johnson teased the changes that he’ll be bringing to the character, calling his version of Kraven “an animal lover” and “a protector of the natural world.”
In an interview with Esquire, Chandor teased a much darker tone for the film.
“Sony probably doesn’t want me to lead with this, but the story is a tragedy. When the final credits roll on this film, if you’ve been paying attention, you won’t have the feeling that this is all going to end great.”
2 Who Is Making ‘Kraven the Hunter’?
J.C. Chandor directed the film. Chandor is most known for directing films such as Triple Frontier, All is Lost, A Most Violent Year, and Margin Call. Richard Wenk, who wrote the screenplays for all three Equalizer films, wrote the screenplay for Kraven the Hunter. He is accompanied by the screenwriting duo Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who previously wrote the scripts for movies like Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, and last year’s Uncharted. A year after Wenk was brought on board as the screenwriter, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, and Avi Arad are set as producers. Ben Davis served as cinematographer for Kraven the Hunter having previously worked on superhero films such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
1 When and Where Was ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Filmed?
Early in February 2022, under the working title Safari, Kraven the Hunter was filmed in Iceland at Lake Mývatn. 80 people from the production company TrueNorth Productions worked on the two days of filming. Later, with the working title Spiral, principal photography commenced on March 20, 2022, in London, England, and was finished by mid-June.
Kraven the Hunter
- Release Date
- December 13, 2024
- Director
- J.C. Chandor
- Cast
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Russell Crowe , Fred Hechinger , Ariana DeBose , Christopher Abbott , Alessandro Nivola , Levi Miller , Chi Lewis-Parry , Billy Barratt , Jessica Zhou , Michael Shaeffer , Dritan Kastrati , Greg Kolpakchi , Elander Moore , Filiz Fairweather , Duran Fulton Brown , Alex Skarbek , Rachel Handshaw , Preslav Shipkaliev , Murat Seven , Robert Ryan
- Runtime
- 127 Minutes
- Character(s)
- Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven , Nikolai Kravinoff , Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon , Calypso , The Foreigner , Aleksei Sytsevich aka The Rhino , Young Sergei , Big Rhino , Young Dmitri , Passerby , André , Oleksander , Guard , Law Firm Receptionist , Restaurant Diner , Sniper 2 , Russian Captain , Cora’s Mum , Prison Officer , Ömer Aksoy , Russian Prisoner
- Writers
- Art Marcum , Richard Wenk , Matt Holloway
- Budget
- 130 million
- Studio(s)
- Sony
- Distributor(s)
- Sony
- Franchise(s)
- Marvel Comics , Marvel Cinematic Universe
