Russell Crowe Says the KRAVEN THE HUNTER Movie Is Set in an "Unexpectedly Dark World"
Kraven The Hunter is such a fascinating character, and I love his story arc in the comics involving hunting down Spider-Man. I’ve been curious about Sony’s Kraven The Hunter movie because while I like this villainous character, Spider-Man will not be involved in the movie, and I want to see Kraven and Spidey face off with each other!
Who knows, though, maybe they’ll come up with a great story for Kraven! Aaron Taylor-Johnson is taking on the role of Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven, who is a big-game hunter. Russell Crowe also stars in the movie and during a recent interview with CBR, he shared a bit of insight that fans might find interesting.
When asked about the project, Crowe explained that it’s “unexpectedly dark”, saying:
“I’ve talked to J.C. Chandor, the director. He’s really excited about what he’s got in front of him and really excited about the way people will receive it. I think I can sort of pass on that one of the things he said, that it’s just an unexpectedly dark world.”
Now, Crowe has not seen the film yet, and he also shared that there will be “another round of shooting” that he will take part in, which is set to happen in a few weeks.
Crowe’s role remains undisclosed, but there have been unconfirmed reports that he’ll play Nikolai Kravinoff, the father of Kraven, which would make sense. It’s not hard to imagine Crowe in that role.
In a previous interview with Taylor-Johnson, he was asked if Kraven would still have that "big-ass lion's mane" in the movie, and this is what he said about the film and his character:
"I can't confirm any details or anything. And also, I guess that was probably a little taken out of context and then run. I mean, I think you know what I meant what really stated was that he was a protector of the natural world I said and he's a conservationist, which is probably more accurate, and then should have stopped there, full stop, shouldn't have gone on beyond that because, yeah I think you know you really got to understand, yeah, he is a hunter and from that world of hunting and there's so many aspects. What I love about that character is that what is he humanizing is that he has flaws, right? Kraven is a beautiful character. Sergei Kravinov is a beautiful character because it's someone who's really understanding themselves and has flaws. This is a character that was built ages ago and it's in a new time and era, but yeah, is he going to be the hunter that we all want to see? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely."
J.C. Chandor is directing the movie from a script by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man), and it also stars Ariana DeBose as Calypso, Russell Crowe as Nikolai Kravinoff, Fred Hechinger as Chameleon, Alessandro Nivola as an unknown villain, Levi Miller, and Catch-22 star Christopher Abbott as the main villain, The Foreigner.
Kraven the Hunter arrives in theaters on October 6, 2023.