Following in the wake of Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Morbius, Sony has big plans for the future of blockbusters vaguely related to Spider-Man. The franchise, known as Sony's Spider-Man Universe, is presently making a number of big projects, all of which are based on beloved villains and lesser-known supporting characters from the wall-crawler’s corner of the world in Marvel Comics. The various movies are all at different stages of development, but the next one set to debut will be J.C. Chandor’s Kraven The Hunter – which is not only well under way, but has put together a stellar ensemble cast.
Written by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer), Kraven The Hunter is a blockbuster that we don’t know too much about as far as plot goes, but we have learned a great deal about what to expect from the feature based on the characters that have been revealed as being included in the story. With the film still being in the works, it’s wholly possible that there are still more names to be announced, but for now, here are all of the actors we know have parts to play in the upcoming feature:
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has quite a lot of comic book movie experience at this point in his career. His big break came from playing the titular hero in the two Kick-Ass films, and he followed those features by becoming Pietro Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (plus there is also his supporting role in The King’s Man). With Kraven The Hunter, his resume in this specific realm will grow further, as he is playing the titular character a.k.a. Sergei Kravinoff in the upcoming film. Not much is known about how the project will treat the famed Spider-Man villain, but we expect that he’ll be striving to be known as the world’s greatest hunter, like his on-the-page counterpart.
Fred Hechinger
Kraven The Hunter isn’t the only Spider-Man villain who is set to have a principal role in the character’s upcoming solo film. Also set to make his live-action premiere in the blockbuster is Dmitri Smerdyakov – the half-brother of Sergei Kravinoff who is best known by the moniker The Chameleon. In the comics, the character is a brilliant master of disguise and can be undetectable when pretending to be another person. Fred Hechinger, coming off a 2021 that saw him star in The White Lotus and the Fear Street trilogy, is playing the part, though we don’t really know anything about how Chameleon will be worked into the plot.
Russell Crowe
Like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe is another actor who has reached a point in his career when he is collecting comic book film parts. A decade ago, the Oscar-winning actor earned the love of DC fans worldwide playing Superman’s father, Jor-El, in Man of Steel (a role he reprised in Zack Snyder’s Justice League), and he has also become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – set to play the godly Zeus in Thor: Love And Thunder. Crowe signed on to Kraven The Hunter in February 2022, but one detail left out of the news was anything about the role he will be taking on. Knowing his history, he could easily be playing either a hero or a villain in the upcoming blockbuster, so all bets are off in terms of what to expect from his performance.
Ariana DeBose
Ariana DeBose didn’t exactly demonstrate a great deal of patience when it came to landing her first comic book movie role following her critically acclaimed turn in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. In February 2022, she joined the cast of Kraven The Hunter… and a few weeks later she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She will reportedly be playing the role of Calypso in the film, who is the romantic lead for the eponymous protagonist and probably best known for pushing Kraven into hunting Spider-Man.
Alessandro Nivola
Unlike most of his male co-stars in Kraven The Hunter, Alessandro Nivola doesn’t have any comic book movie experience, but his part in the production is no less exciting as a result, as he has proven himself one of the industry’s most reliable character actors since the mid-1990s. In 2021 he earned praise for his role as Dickie Moltisanti in The Many Saints Of Newark (the Sopranos prequel movie), and in addition to his work on Kraven, he has already finished working on new movies directed by David O. Russell (a project that doesn’t have a title yet) and Noah Baumbach (an adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel White Noise). We don’t yet know what part he is playing in the Spider-Man spinoff, but it’s news we anticipate learning in the months to come.
Christopher Abbott
At this point in his career, Christopher Abbott is best known for his work on the small screen, having starred in shows including Girls, The Sinner, and the miniseries Catch-22, but blockbuster experience is on the horizon thanks to his part in Kraven The Hunter. We don’t know anything about how he will fit into the plot of the film, but Abbott is reportedly set up to play The Foreigner – who is another Spider-Man villain from Marvel Comics. The character is a mercenary/assassin who is one of the world’s most gifted, non-super fighters on Earth (this will be his first live-action appearance), and one can imagine him providing a challenge for Sergei Kravinoff in his pursuit of being known as the world’s greatest hunter.
Kraven The Hunter is very much on its way, and if all goes according to plan, it will be arriving in theaters everywhere on October 6, 2023. We plan to regularly add to this feature as new actors are announced as part of the film’s ensemble, and you can continue to find any and all major updates about the project in the CinemaBlend Superhero section. To learn about all of the big features - including mulitple upcoming Marvel movies - that are on the way between now and the release of Kraven, head on over to our 2023 movie schedule.
