Kraven The Hunter Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Rating And More Details

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Sony's Spider-Man Universe has been a bit hit-or-miss. Basing their films on some of Spidey's most iconic villains, they found great financial success with their two "Venom" movies, but they took an absolute drubbing from critics and audiences alike when "Morbius" danced its way into theaters. Now, the folks at Sony are hoping to rebound from their vampire debacle with a new big bad taking on the role of cinematic antihero.

Enter Kraven the Hunter.

A Russian aristocrat whose real name is Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven made his comic book debut in 1964, courtesy of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's "The Amazing Spider-Man No. 15." A bloodthirsty baddie, Kraven's dream was to bag Spider-Man, thus proving himself the greatest big-game hunter on the planet. Over the years, Kraven has encountered characters like Black Panther, Venom, and Squirrel Girl, and now he's coming to theater screens — although this is going to be a slightly different take on the fur-clad character.

If you want to learn more about Sony's new superhero flick, read on for everything you need to know about "Kraven the Hunter."

When casting the role of Kraven the Hunter, the people at Sony were looking at quite a few A-listers. According to Deadline reporter Justin Kroll, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Adam Driver, and John David Washington were all considered for the role. However, Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance in "Bullet Train" blew the Sony execs away, and once they saw the dailies on David Leitch's action film, they happily offered Taylor-Johnson the part.

Taylor-Johnson is no stranger to the superhero genre, playing Quicksilver in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and the titular vigilante in "Kick-Ass." And with the aforementioned "Bullet Train" and other notable titles like "Tenet" under his belt, we totally get why Sony thinks he's perfect for the part. In fact, Johnson has signed on for multiple films, proving Sony has a lot of faith in both the actor and his character. But who will be joining Taylor-Johnson for his big hunt? Well, Russell Crowe of "Gladiator" fame will be playing Kraven's villainous dad, Nikolai Kravinoff, and Ariana DeBose (who won best supporting actress for "West Side Story") will star as Calypso. In the comics, Calypso is Kraven's love interest and a voodoo priestess, and we're excited to see what DeBose will do with the role.

Fred Hechinger — who played the canoe-loving Quinn Mossbacher in "The White Lotus" — will portray the Chameleon, a character who can disguise himself as anyone and who also happens to be Kraven's half-brother. Christopher Abbott — who you might recognize from titles such as "Possessor," "Girls," and "It Comes At Night" — will play a villainous mercenary by the name of the Foreigner. Rounding out the lead cast, Alessandro Nivola of "The Many Saints of Newark" and "The Art of Self-Defense" will play one of Spider-Man's most memorable B-tier baddies, the Rhino.

We also expect to see Levi Miller of "Pan" and a "Wrinkle in Time" playing a younger version of Kraven.

"Kraven the Hunter" is the screenplay son of many fathers, the first of whom is Richard Wenk. A man who excels at writing action flicks (2016's "The Magnificent Seven," "The Expendables 2," all three "Equalizer" movies), Wenk was brought onto the pic in 2018. Originally, he intended to draw a lot of influence from the comic storyline "Kraven's Last Hunt," in which the titular villain succeeds in tracking down and killing Spider-Man. In fact, Wenk planned on including Peter Parker himself in the proceedings, but that doesn't seem to be what's happening in the finished product.

Unless Sony is doing an amazing job at keeping Spidey's involvement a secret — and anyone who followed the lead-up to "Spider-Man: No Way Home" knows Sony isn't particularly skilled at keeping those kinds of secrets — Spider-Man won't be showing up in this film in any way, shape, or form. That's par for the course with every other entry in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, and we're assuming the wall-crawler was cut out of the script when two additional screenwriters were brought on board for rewrites.

In August 2020, it was reported that Art Marcum and Matt Holloway ("Men in Black: International," "Uncharted") had taken a stab at the script. It seems that in their version, Kraven is less of a big-game hunter and more of a vigilante hero. In June 2022, Aaron Taylor-Johnson told Variety that his character was "a human with conviction. An animal lover and protector of the natural world." That lines up with the film's official trailer, where Kraven brutally destroys some poachers. It's definitely a new take on a character who used to hang human heads up on his wall as trophies, but we're interested to see Marcum and Holloway's version of the bad guy.

In true Marvel tradition, the trailer for "Kraven the Hunter" promises some serious conflict between our antihero and his not-so-dear dad. (Marvel dads are the worst.) We see Russell Crowe's mobster raising his two boys — Kraven and the Chameleon — with an iron fist. The man is obsessed with showing strength and stamping out weakness, so when Kraven is savaged by a lion during an African safari, the gangster leaves him behind to die.

Well, that was a big mistake because the attack turns Kraven into a superbeing — one who can use a connection with animals to track down and murder his enemies. And when he does battle with the bad guys, he slaughters them with any means necessary. In the trailer, we witness Kraven shoot a dude with a crossbow, stick a guy with a spear, sic someone with a wolf, and rip a poacher's nose off with his own teeth. "My father puts evil into the world," Kraven says. "I take it out." And he seems to be doing a pretty good job of it.

Of course, the trailer ends with a pretty great set-up for another superbeing on the horizon. As the skin on his arm morphs into a rough gray hide, we hear a menacing Alessandro Nivola say, "There is an animal in each one of us. Don't you want to know why they call me the Rhino?"