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Credit: Marvel StudiosThere’s a new Spider-Man character on the block, and he’s going to join the franchise in a gloriously gory way.
Related: New ‘Spider-Verse’ Trailer Introduces Maguire, Garfield and Holland Spider-Man Variants
Spider-Man is an iconic character in popular culture ever since his debut in 1962 in Marvel Comics, representing relatability and the idea that anyone, regardless of background or status, can be a hero. Created by Stan Lee His and artist Steve Ditko, the webslinger’s enduring popularity stems from his character’s story incorporating themes of responsibility, self-sacrifice, and the consequences of power, making him a symbol of hope, resilience, and the human spirit.
Spider-Man, Sony, and the MCU
Now the character of Spider-Man has had a bit of a bumpy history in media outside the comics. With film rights initially being sold to Sony, the early 2000s brought us Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, and a need to reboot the franchise to maintain those lucrative rights brought the world the Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spider-Man duology of movies.
Related: ‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff Bringing Back Classic Villain, Could Start the Sinister Six
Now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) helmed by Kevin Feige over at Marvel Studios, has managed to negotiate a special deal with Sony through their parent company The Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios (as a subsidiary of Disney) and Sony reached a new agreement to collaborate on the use of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Under this agreement, Spider-Man was allowed to appear in MCU films, starting with Captain America: Civil War in 2016, with actor Tom Holland taking on the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
The new Spider-Man franchise movie, and what it means
The Sony Marvel Universe primarily focuses around the Spider-Man intellectual property mainly because that is the extent of the rights they own. This means that they have the ability to expand on the Spider-Man franchise and only the Spider-Man franchise, including all of its associated side characters and villains. This has in fact given rise to several much-lauded projects, chief of which is Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Verse series of films, including 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse and upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — the first film of which clinched prestigious Oscar awards and pioneering a special hybridized “2D and 3D” animation style, that’s being replicated in major ways, by competitors like Disney and beyond.
Another major win for Sony was the popular Venom franchise of films starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, which includes Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021).
However not every Sony Spider-Man project goes as well as that. The movie Morbius (2022) starring Jared Leto as lead Dr. Michael Morbius, was a villain origin film for the eponymous character of Morbius — a well-known villain in the “Spider-Man” comics. The film was critically panned and infamously turned into a meme, with people watching the movie ironically even prompting Sony to rerelease the film in theaters — to what can only be described as the opposite of success.
Now, it appears that a certain Spider-Man character is going to be getting his time in the sun — and a former MCU star is jumping ship to their rival of sorts.
Sony’s upcoming R-rated Spider-Man universe movie, Kraven the Hunter, will star Aaron Taylor Johnson — the MCU’s Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, brother of Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). As the Quicksilver character was previously owned by Fox under their X-Men franchise (prior to The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition), Johnson’s character was unceremoniously killed off in the same movie he debuted — 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
According to The Direct, Johnson will now move onto play the role of Sergei Kravinoff AKA Kraven the Hunter, a “Russian hunter out to prove himself to the world”. Johnson has previously indicated that his character will be a “protector of the natural world” and be a bit of a conservationist. With its first trailer debuting at CinemaCon recently, the depictions have been described as both “animalistic” and “vicious”, with Brandon Davis of ComicBook.com even going so far as to detail the bloody trailer as follows:
Warning: the following contains descriptions of violence, gore, and blood.
Kraven the Hunter showed a trailer at #CinemaCon.
Gritty & bloody, a few f-bombs. Aaron Taylor-Johnson bites a dude’s face out and spits it towards the camera, holds up the classic costume, and even runs on all fours. He’s out to be “nothing like” his dad. Looks vicious.
Kraven the Hunter showed a trailer at #CinemaCon.
Gritty & bloody, a few f-bombs. Aaron Taylor-Johnson bites a dude's face out and spits it towards the camera, holds up the classic costume, and even runs on all fours. He's out to be "nothing like" his dad. Looks vicious. pic.twitter.com/NtfrXkj8JX
— BD (@BrandonDavisBD) April 25, 2023
It’s all very interesting for fans who have followed both the Sony and MCU superhero franchises. It’s no secret that characters from the MCU, such as Michael Keaton’s the Vulture/Adrian Toomes in Morbius, show up in the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU), and vice-versa, like Maguire and Garfield variants of Peter Parker playing major roles in MCU-canon films like Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Now with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse likely bringing in these same versions of Peter Parker into canon in their world — perhaps all this indicates that the Marvel Multiverse is more closely tied than we think.
What do you think of this R-rated Kraven the Hunter news? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
More on Kraven the Hunter
JC Chandor is directing the film, with a screenplay written by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk. Ariana DeBose portrays the character of Calypso, a voodoo priestess and Kraven’s romantic interest, in the film. Russell Crowe plays the role of Kraven’s father. Fred Hechinger takes on the character of Dmitri Smerdyakov, also known as Chameleon, who is Kraven’s half-brother and a skilled master of disguise. Alessandro Nivola is cast as Rhino, and Christopher Abbott is confirmed as the film’s main antagonist. Additionally, Levi Miller has been cast in an undisclosed role.