Kraven The Hunter 101: Everything You Need To Know About The Latest Marvel Movie Anti-Hero

Superhero cinema is in a precarious position right now. With DC's movie franchise flailing ahead of James Gunn and Peter Safran's reboot and the Marvel Cinematic Universe seeing a drop-off in overall popularity, it's easy to claim that the long-mooted "superhero fatigue" is finally settling in. And yet, the recent success of both "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" flies directly in the face of that idea. Audiences, it seems, aren't necessarily burned out on superhero films. They're burned out on superhero films that merely offer more of the same.

This is where "Kraven the Hunter" has an advantage. The latest entry in Sony's Spider-Man Universe casts Aaron Taylor-Johnson ("Kick-Ass") as its namesake, a character who has never appeared in a live-action movie before (despite several near-misses in the past). Having learned at least one lesson from "Morbius," Sony is releasing "Kraven" with an R-rating, freeing up the titular character to stab, slash, claw, and bite the noses off of his enemies' faces (!) to his heart's desire. This should also make it easier for "Kraven" to stand out amidst a sea of family-friendly superhero flicks, in addition to playing to the strengths of director J.C. Chandor ("A Most Violent Year," "Triple Frontier") and co-writers Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk — a team whose collective resume includes the profoundly-graphic "Punisher: War Zone" and "Equalizer" films.

Admittedly, Kraven's lack of history in live-action is a double-edged blade. Those not familiar with him from Marvel's comics may find themselves confused (if also intrigued) by the sight of Taylor-Johnson posing like a thirst trap in between casually murdering people with spears and crossbows in the "Kraven" trailer. If that includes you — and, presumably, it does, seeing as you clicked on this article — allow us to help.

The "Kraven the Hunter" trailer introduces Russell Crowe — now firmly in the DGAF stage of his acting career and all the better off for it — as Kraven's father, an iron-fisted Russian crime boss shown coldly informing his young sons their mother has died after being sent away to a mental health institution. In Marvel's comics, Kraven's family, the Kravinoffs, were Russian aristocrats who fled their home country in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution and eventually made their way to the U.S. The movie adaptation appears to be somewhat faithful to this; the young Kraven, aka Sergei Kravinoff, speaks to his father in a U.S. accent, suggesting he and his sibling, Dmitri Smerdyakov, were both raised in the States.

Speaking of, as you may have gathered, Dmitri is actually Sergei's half-brother. In the comics, Dmitri (who ultimately becomes the disguise-savvy super-villain Chameleon, played by Fred Hechinger in the "Kraven" movie) is unaware of his true heritage and acts as a servant to Sergei. The pair have a decidedly complicated relationship. Growing up, Sergei was abused by his alcoholic father, which in turn led to him befriending Dmitri while also using him as an outlet for his internal turmoil. But where Sergei's father had already died by the time his mother was sent to an institution in the comics, the "Kraven" film looks to reframe Sergei as being less villain and more of an antihero determined to escape his still-living father's toxic influence.

Another thing to note: in the comics, Sergei is haunted by the thought of his mother dying alone in an unsanitary asylum filled with spiders. There's even a shot in the "Kraven" trailer that shows Serge in a forest gaping up in horror as spiders descend upon him. Is this real or just a figment of his imagination?

Perhaps the biggest and most eyebrow-raising change "Kraven the Hunter" seems to have made to Kraven's origin story so far is the source of his super-abilities. In the comics, Kraven attains his heightened strength, speed, and stamina by regularly ingesting a set of specific herbal potions. However, the "Kraven" trailer shows the young Kraven on an African hunting expedition with his father when he's mauled by a lion and left for dead, only for the lion's blood to drip into his wounds and, by the look of it, alter his very DNA. That's more or less in keeping with the rest of Sony's Spider-Man Universe, in which characters like Venom and Morbius — as with the web-slingers that populate the Spider-Verse — tend to have powers rooted in some type of relatively "hard" fictional science (as opposed to something comparatively fantastical like "magic" potions).

The source of their powers aside, the live-action and comic book iterations of Kraven otherwise seem more or less the same in terms of their skill set. Besides being able to jump and tackle his opponents like a lion on cocaine, the live-action Kraven is shown to possess the character's classic heightened senses and mastery of a wide variety of human weapons. Sure, he can and does wield guns every now and then, but where's the fun in that when you can sneak up and slam animal traps on your enemies' heads or leap aboard moving trucks and tear them apart with your bare teeth? This is probably also a good time to emphasize that even the "gentler" live-action version of Kraven still resides firmly in antihero territory, judging by the first-look footage.

"Kraven the Hunter" opens in theaters on December 13, 2024.