Kraven the Hunter (2024)

Director : J.C. Chandor

Writers : Richard WenkArt MarcumMatt Holloway

Stars : Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger.

Kraven the Hunter is a 2024 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The film explores Kraven's relationship with his father and his path to becoming the greatest hunter. Directed by J. C. Chandor from a screenplay by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, the film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role, alongside Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment, it is the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU).

Kraven was considered for film appearances several times before Sony Pictures became interested in a standalone film for the character, as part of its new shared universe, in mid-2017. Wenk was hired in August 2018, with Marcum and Holloway joining later. Chandor entered negotiations to direct in August 2020 and was confirmed in May 2021 when Taylor-Johnson was cast. Additional cast members joined in early 2022 before filming took place from late March until mid-June in London, Iceland, and Glasgow.

Following two years of delays, Kraven the Hunter was released by Columbia Pictures in the United States on December 13, 2024. The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $62 million worldwide on a budget of $110–130 million, and received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized its screenplay and visual effects, although its action sequences and Taylor-Johnson’s performance were praised.

Plot[edit]

Following the death of his mother, Sergei Kravinoff and his half-brother Dmitri are taken by their father Nikolai to prepare to take over his drug trafficking operations. During a hunting trip in Tanzania, Sergei is injured protecting his brother from a lion. A girl named Calypso heals him with a serum and calls for rescue, leaving a tarot card behind. Sergei soon discovers his physical attributes have become animalistic. When Nikolai reveals he killed the lion to teach his sons a lesson, a disgusted Sergei flees to a sanctuary owned by his mother in Russia.

Sixteen years later, Sergei, now going by Kraven, is a vigilante who hunts criminals. After killing an arms trafficker in a Russian prison, Kraven travels to London for Dmitri's birthday. Their reunion is short-lived when mercenaries abduct Dimitri. When Nikolai refuses to pay the ransom, Kraven tracks down Calypso, now working as a lawyer, and convinces her to help. Meanwhile, Dmitri meets the man behind his kidnapping, Aleksei Sytsevich, who took part in an experiment granting him the strength and visage of a rhinoceros. Aleksei proposes an alliance to overthrow Nikolai. Discovering Kraven's connection to Dmitri, Aleksei lures him to a monastery in Turkey, but Kraven survives the ambush. Aleksei hires the Foreigner, an assassin who uses ocular hypnosis to disorient his targets, to kill Kraven.

Tracking Kraven and Calypso to his sanctuary, Aleksei and the Foreigner ambush Kraven. Drugging him with neurotoxin, the Foreigner attacks Kraven but Calypso kills him with a crossbow and revives Kraven. He then uses a buffalo stampede to trap Aleksei, who, despite turning into the Rhino and briefly overpowering Kraven, is killed. Discerning that Nikolai was the one who revealed his existence to Aleksei, Kraven tracks his father for answers; Nikolai reveals that he knew Aleksei was targeting him and manipulated his sons to remove him. Kraven steals ammunition so that his father will be killed by a bear.

One year later, Kraven visits Dmitri and is shocked that he has willingly inherited their father's criminal empire. Having gained shapeshifting abilities from the doctor who experimented on Aleksei,[a] Dmitri reveals this to Kraven, disowning him, stating that despite his claims of being morally superior, he and Nikolai were the same: hunters searching for their next great trophy. At home, Kraven discovers a note from Nikolai along with a vest made from the skin of the killed lion from long ago, which he puts on.