Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular character, Kraven the Hunter is Sony’s latest attempt at bringing a Spider-Man villain to theaters in a universe where the Web-Crawler doesn’t exist. Sadly, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) never managed to recreate the box office magic of the first Venom. The Venom trilogy earned less money with each installment, Madame Web fell short of expectations, and Morbius failed to resonate with audiences after two theatrical rollouts. It’s safe to say fans’ trust in the brand is cautious. Still, in an exclusive interview with ComicBook, Kraven the Hunter director J.C. Chandor explained how he took an unusual route to adapting the character by betting on the same tone of his acclaimed movies.
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While Kraven is one of Spider-Man’s fiercest enemies, the hunter is getting his first live-action take with Chandor’s adaptation. As Chandor puts it, this kind of challenge is what ultimately drew him to the project. “I’ve been offered a bunch of these films over the years,” Chandor explains. “And so… this wasn’t something that had ever been put on film before. This was not a character that had ever been put on film; in fact, there are three or four of our main characters that have never been brought into live-action. And so that as a storyteller was pretty darn exciting.”
[Related: Kraven the Hunter’s Opening Weekend Box Office Could be Lower Than Morbius]
In addition to Taylor-Johnson’s hunter, Kraven also features Calypso (Ariana DeBose) and the Chameleon (Fred Hechinger), two other iconic Spider-Man characters who’ll pop into theaters for the first time. As for Rhino, the character has a small role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where Paul Giamatti played him. However, the villain is one of the main characters of Kraven the Hunter, with Alessandro Nivola taking over the mantle. It’s not easy to juggle so many comic book characters in a single movie, especially when there were no previous iterations of them. Still, Chandor’s approach in Kraven the Hunter is deceptively simple. Above all, he’s just trying to make a good movie.
J.C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter Echoes his Oscar-Nominee Voice
As Chandor told us, “There are so many different versions of how you can go” when making a comic book movie. Yet, “Over the last 15 years, we’ve seen a lot of these films, and the ones that are most successful for me are a reflection of the filmmaker at their best.” Chandor is not wrong. From Logan to The Suicide Squad, the comic book movies that became critical successes were the ones in which filmmakers tried to imprint their unique voices. That’s why Chandor tackled Kraven the Hunter like any other project. The director explains, “What I’m trying to do with each of these movies is bring a little bit of my own point of view and also just try and elevate that genre in a way.”
That’s definitely good news. Over his brilliant career, Chandor garnered dozens of esteemed awards for movies such as Triple Frontier, All Is Lost, and A Most Violent Year. The director’s Margin Call even got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay while also scoring a nomination for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival.
While Kraven the Hunter is nothing like Chandor’s previous movies, the director still thinks they can be compared. Chandor reflected on this point, revealing that, “One of the things I’m most proud of in the way of the film is that tonally, it can be held up against any of my other films.” Chandor is aware, “That sounds a little crazy because, obviously, some of my films aren’t exactly in this space. But I think when people see the film, [they’ll realize] really, at my heart, I’m like a genre filmmaker.”
Kraven the Hunter will premiere exclusively in theaters on December 13th.
