In anticipation of Sony’s next big Spider-Man spinoff movie, Kraven the Hunter, the first eight minutes of the movie have been posted online for curious fans to check out. Actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson introduces the clip, which he said got a great response at New York Comic Con. Check it out:
The clip starts with the classic Marvel opening, then pans over a Russian prison. Kraven is a prisoner, and is taken to his cell where he meets his roomate. Kraven shows a little humor here by asking his roommate, “can I sit with you at lunch?” to which his roommate replies, “no”. The next scene shows Kraven bench pressing in in the prison yard, when two other inmates come over and attempt to hold his bar down. Instead of letting it crush him, he easily lifts up the two inmates along with the bar and drops them all at the same, demonstrating his super human strength.
The leader of the gang that runs the prison then summons Kraven. The gang leader calls Kraven the Hunter a myth, and traps him in the room. Kraven doesn’t exactly like that and easily (see: brutally) fights his way out. The final part of the clip shows Kraven escaping as guards shoot at him from a distance. This sequence demonstrates some of Kraven’s other abilities like being able to effortlessly climb and jump from wall to wall. These powers are a perfect display of what type of villain Kraven would make for Spider-Man. He then sprints into a snowstorm and onto a plane, where he wipes away his neck tattoo. The last shot shows some prison guards finding a body in the snow with the neck tattoo that Kraven just wiped off showing that he set up the whole scenario for the guards to think he had died. The movie cuts to the intro logo and that’s it.
Kraven joins Venom, Morbius, and Madame Web as the newest Spidey character to receive their own movie from Sony. While the reception for the previously mentioned entries have been mixed at best, we can’t deny that Venom brought in the ticket sales and so far trailers have made Kraven seem to be on that same level. In terms of villains for Spider-Man to go up against, Kraven is actually one of the more requested foes for the web-slinger to go head to head with and the Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline is one of the most well known Spider-Man comics ever created, so it seems like Sony knew they had to put some work into this character. If this movie is successful, the character has a ton of potential for going up against Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
The tone of this movie is definitely on the violent side of the spectrum with some of the trailers being particularly brutal. But to be fair, it works for the character. This should be expected after what Sony did with the other spinoff properties. This movie feels like it has almost the exact tone and aesthetic as the Venom movies, and if the opening eight minutes were a preview for the rest of the film then it will be very action focused. Kraven is not a story driven character and has always been more if a physical presence and threat. He’s interesting not because of where he came from or his story, but because of how large of a threat he is to Peter Parker.
Kraven the Hunter is produced by Sony and premiers in theaters December 13th. Do you want to see Kraven go head to head against Peter Parker? Sound off on our social media!