Kraven the Hunter Star Russell Crowe Teases Sony’s “Dark” Spider-Man Spinoff

If you’re on the hunt for a darker superhero movie, Russell Crowe says Kraven the Hunter hits the mark. The Sony’s Spider-Man Universe spin-off stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) as Sergei Kravinoff, a master hunter whose obsession with his arch-nemesis Spider-Man once drove the villain to suicide in the Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline of the comics. In an interview for his new supernatural-horror movie The Pope’s Exorcist, in theaters April 14th, Crowe teased director J.C. Chandor’s “unexpectedly dark” extension of Sony’s web of movies that already spawned the Tom Hardy-starring Venom and Jared Leto’s Morbius. 

“I haven’t seen it, but I know that we’re going through another round of shooting soon. I’ve got a scene to do in a couple of weeks,” Crowe told Comic Book Resources, adding Chandor is “really excited about what he’s got in front of him and really excited about the way people will receive it.” Crowe then relayed that Chandor described Kraven as taking place in an “unexpectedly dark world.”

The Triple Frontier filmmaker directs from a script by Sony’s Equalizer writer Richard Wenk and screenwriting duo Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, whose credits include Marvel Studios’ Iron Man, R-ratedMarvel comic book adaptation Punisher: War Zone, and Sony’s video game adaptation Uncharted.

Taylor-Johnson leads a cast that includes Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) as Kraven’s longtime love interest, the witchy Calypso, and Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) as Sergei’s half-brother, Dmitri Smerdyakov, the face-stealing master of disguise known as the Chameleon. The cast also includes Christopher Abbott (A Most Violent Year) and Alessandro Nivola (Boston Strangler) in villainous roles, and Levi Miller (A Wrinkle in Time) and Crowe (Gladiator) in undisclosed roles.

Plot details remain under wraps, but Taylor-Johnson has described the live-action Kraven as “a protector of the natural world” and a “conservationist.” 

“He is a hunter and from that world of hunting and there’s so many aspects [to him]. What I love about that character is that he has flaws,” the actor exclusively told ComicBook. “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.”

Sony’s Kraven the Hunter is scheduled to open October 6th only in theaters. Other upcoming SSU films include the Bad Bunny-led El Muerto (January 12th, 2024), Madame Web (February 14th, 2024), and the untitled and undated Venom 3.