Actor Russell Crowe is on board the upcoming Spider-Man spin-off film, Kraven the Hunter. The film is yet another addition to Sony’s expansion of its Marvel universe.
It will be directed by JC Chandor with Aaron Taylor-Johnson set to appear as the titular character. However, details around the storyline as well as Crowe’s character are under wraps.
This will be the third superhero venture for Crowe, and his second outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The Oscar-winning actor first appeared as Jor-El in the 2013 Superman film Man of Steel. Crowe is also set to feature in Marvel’s upcoming film, Thor: Love and Thunder.
Kraven appears in Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man universe as one of the superhero’s many nemeses. He made his comic debut in 1964, with The Amazing Spider-Man No 15, and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Born to Russian aristocrats as Sergei Kravinoff, he grows up with an abusive father and survives to become a maniacal big game hunter in Africa, as per Marvel’s synopsis of the character. Imbibing a potion enhances his physical prowess and as Kraven the Hunter, he finds pleasure in hunting Spider-Man. He is even said to have buried Spider-Man alive, in one of the comics, and donned his costume.
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Kraven the Hunter is one of multiple projects lined up by Sony and Marvel in a bid to expand the Spider-Man universe. While the characters belong to Marvel, Sony controls the film rights to Spider-Man and other related characters. The studio has previously churned out spin-off movies like Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021). It also has the upcoming Jared Leto-starrer Morbius and Madame Web, which Dakota Johnson is in talks for.
These spin-off films are notable and come at a time when there is not much clarity surrounding the future of Spider-Man films.
Although the last film with the web-slinging superhero, Spider-Man: No Way Home, has become one of the highest-grossing films of all time, and Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Sony’s Amy Pascal confirmed that another Spider-Man film is in the works, the studios have not divulged any further information.
And since Kraven has not appeared in any of the Spider-Man live-action films so far, it remains to be seen if a connection is drawn to MCU at all in the upcoming film.