Spider-Man villain Kraven the Hunter will get his own standalone movie

One of Spider-Man’s lesser-known adversaries, Kraven the Hunter, is set to feature in a spin-off movie starring British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

It’s fair to say that Kraven the Hunter is a larger than life character, even by comic book standards. The character’s real name is Sergei Kravinoff, and he is the son of a Russian aristocrat who fled his homeland after its 1917 revolution who now prides himself as the most fearsome big-game hunter in all the world. His ultimate prize? None other than Spider-Man himself.

Comic book depictions usually show him bare-chested, yet still wearing enough leopard print to make Carole Baskin blush, with canine teeth jutting out of his belt and a trusty hunting rifle in hand (and you thought Batman had some rather strange animal-related hang-ups).

Sony Pictures has announced that it will bring this character to the silver screen, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (whose previous superhero credits include Avengers: Age of Ultron and Kick-Ass).

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is KRAVEN THE HUNTER, coming to theaters January 2023. @KravenTheMovie https://t.co/vyxmNemV6z

— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) May 27, 2021

Related: Venom 2 – Tom Hardy comes back with a bite

The difficulty of this movie, bearing in mind the complicated rights wrangle between Disney and Marvel, is that Spider-Man will probably not appear. While Sony bought the rights to Spidey and his related characters, Marvel negotiated a deal that saw him incarnated by Tom Holland in the MCU series, but it’s unlikely we’ll see him pop up in Sony’s own standalone projects.

Much like the film Venom, we’re expecting to see this movie centred entirely on the antagonist, without so much as a mention of his nemesis Peter Parker. It’s hard to imagine exactly how this will take place, or what Kraven the Hunter will chase after in his absence, but if Tom Hardy’s turn in Venom will serve as inspiration, then we could see some very crazy stuff indeed:

If there’s a similar scene to the infamous lobster tank meltdown in this movie, perhaps taking place in a zoo for endangered big cats, then I can only dread to think what the age restriction will be, as Kraven certainly doesn’t seem to be the animal-loving type, and those magnificent creatures aren’t just going to skin themselves are they?

Kraven The Hunter is set for release on January 13, 2023.