Sony just decided to follow up the enormous success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse by reminding us just how different in quality its live-action Marvel movies are with the unveiling of the first trailer for Kraven the Hunter. Sure enough, the trailer promised all the tropes we’ve come to expect from the studio’s Spidey villain spinoffs, from wildly different origin stories to a fundamental misunderstanding of what a villain actually is.
On the upside, though, everyone seems to love Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s physicality in the role of the, uh, apparently animal-controlling hunter. So it’s somewhat encouraging that the Avengers: Age of Ultron actor seems to be under the the belief that he’s due to battle Tom Holland’s Spider-Man at some point in the future. After the trailer released, Taylor-Johnson took to his Instagram Story to share it, offering the comment, “Spider-Man… I’m coming for you.”
Anyone who’s been following the Venom franchise from the very beginning may be getting déjà vu right about now as Tom Hardy used to do this kind of thing all the time, priming us for some incoming Venom vs. Spidey battle that sadly has yet to materialize. Then again, Morbius — in its much-mocked post-credits scene — did see Michael Keaton’s Vulture recruit Jared Leto’s vampire into an embryonic Sinister Six, so maybe Taylor-Johnson’s teasing will actually come to something.
Assuming, that is, that Holland will continue on as Peter Parker once he returns from his current acting sabbatical, given that he’s warned he’ll only star in Spider-Man 4 if a strong enough story is found. Would the idea of fighting Kraven be enough to hook him back? Only time will tell.
