Sony continues to stack up their own roster of Marvel characters. After Venom, Spider-Man, Morbius and Silk, they have taken another anti-hero/super-villain under their wings and it’s one of the founding members of Sinister Six.
Yes, Sony is finally making a solo film on Kraven The Hunter and they have already found an interesting lead for the film. Aaron Taylor-Johnson will portray the arch-enemy of Spider-Man in the movie. Interestingly, Johnson has already featured in MCU as Quicksilver who was one of the Avengers in Avengers: Age of Ultron. So with this casting, Johnson will join an unique club of dual superhero roles with Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern and Deadpool), Chris Evans (Human Torch and Captain America) and Michael B. Jordan (Human Torch and Killmonger).
Those who are unfamiliar with Kraven The Hunter, his real name is Sergei Kravinoff who is of Russian royalty and fled to America with his family after the Russian revolution in 1917. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1964, He is a maniac big game hunter and an arch rival of Spider-Man and sometimes, Black Panther. His ultimate aim is to hunt Spider-Man to prove that he is superior than Spider-Man ever was. He is one of the founding members of Sinister six. Kraven, though a super-villain, has a great sense of honor for his rivals, especially Spider-Man. He even became an ally of Spider-Man a few times and that also makes him an anti-hero rather than a cold blooded villain.
Sony was earlier in talks with Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Adam Driver and John David Washington for the role of Karven for a long time but the role finally landed to Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sony was extremely impressed by his performance in Bullet Train. Apart from Bullet Train and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Johnson has quite a few blockbusters under his name such as both the installments of Kick-ass, Godzilla, Tenet, Nocturnal Animals amongst others.
As per the latest reports, J.C. Chandor will be directing Kraven The Hunter in association with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach who will be producing it. They have also hired Art Marcum & Matt Holloway alongside Richard Wenk for the screenplay of the same.
Kraven The Hunter is aiming to be released on 13th January, 2023, almost a year after the release of Morbius, which is another Marvel character of Sony Pictures Universe.