The Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters was always a bit of a gamble, even if Venom brought in over $850 million at the box office. After all, one hit isn’t exactly a guarantee that audiences will be willing to return for a continued series of Marvel Comics adaptations. Especially when they don’t come from Kevin Feige’s much more established franchise. Not to mention the fact that the majority of projects rumored to be in development are focused on lesser-known characters.
One such film is Kraven the Hunter, which is in the works from Triple Frontier director J.C. Chandor and has been crawling its way through pre-production for a while now. Though not exactly an A-list Marvel villain, Kraven’s still a decent-sized antagonist that was heavily linked to Spider-Man: No Way Home at one point. And though it doesn’t seem like he’ll be showing up there anymore, Sony has at least found an actor to play him, with the studio signing Aaron Taylor-Johnson to the role.
Variety brings word tonight that the former MCU star, who portrayed Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron, will bring Kraven to life on the big screen. And it’ll certainly be interesting to see what he can do with the part given that he’s a bit of an unexpected choice.
That being said, Taylor-Johnson is a seriously talented individual who obviously didn’t get enough screen time in the MCU, so it should be fun seeing him headline his own Marvel movie, even if it hails from Sony’s franchise. After all, you just know he’ll be rubbing shoulders with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man at some point.
Kraven the Hunter will be with us on January 13th, 2023.