Sony has long threatened to double down on Spider-Man villain movies. But after the collapse of the Sinister Six movie and another round of reboots, the only two that remained on the map were Venom and Kraven The Hunter. Two Venom movies later, a Kraven movie is still on the slate, and now it has a rating.
At CinemaCon, the hunter himself, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (via video presentation), announced that “fuck yeah,” Kraven’s getting an R-rating. While that’s hardly surprising in our Deadpool–obsessed society, it is a milestone for the studio. It’s the first Spider-Man spin-off to nab the anything-goes bloodletting that Fox has lorded over other superhero movies for the last decade. No longer the domain of Logan and Deadpool, Kraven doesn’t mince words. The first teaser for the film is a bloody good time, filled with Taylor-Johnson wielding a giant crossbow, biting some goon’s nose off, and unboxing a jacket with a ridiculous fur collar.
Though the teaser offers little about the plot, the movie follows the Venom model. It’s a superhero movie first, without much hint that Kraven will be hunting down his most dangerous game, Spider-Man. Instead, it looks like he’s tracking big game hunters and poachers and avenging his father, Russell Crowe.
Kraven The Hunter runs barefoot into theaters on October 6, 2023.
