While we'll have to wait to see how Spider-Man's, shall we say, "situation," post-Avengers: Infinity War is handled next year in Avengers 4, one thing is certain: Tom Holland's iteration of the Web-Slinger will be back, and a few months later, he'll return to the silver screen for another standalone adventure. More than a week ago, it was announced that the next Spider-Man film will be called Spider-Man: Far From Home, and not long after, it was revealed that the sequel will see Peter Parker traveling to Europe during his summer vacation. Beyond that, we don't have any official plot details about Spider-Man: Far From Home, although Jake Gyllenhaal has reportedly been eyed to play the main antagonist, Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio, and Michael Keaton is reportedly reprising Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. Vulture. However, now that we know about Spider-Man: Far From Home's European setting, that potentially paves the way for another longtime Spider-Man foe to be featured: Sergei Kravinoff, more commonly known as Kraven the Hunter. The question is, should he show up in the sequel?
Introduced in 1964's The Amazing Spider-Man #15, Kraven the Hunter is a Russian big game hunter who prefers killing his prey with his bare hands rather than with projectiles. Kraven was already formidable as a "normal" human, but after ingesting a special potion made from various jungle herbs, his strength and durability were boosted, and his aging was slowed down. Kraven's beef with Spider-Man began when his half-brother Dmitri Smerdyakov, a.k.a. The Chameleon (who was Spider-Man's first super villain adversary), recruited him to help take down the Wall-Crawler. Unfortunately, this particular hunt didn't end well for Kraven, and Spier-Man emerged victorious. Since then, Kraven has tried time and time again to bring down the arachnid-themed superhero, and while eventually Kraven killed himself after failing to kill Spidey during his "final hunt," he was later resurrected by his wife Sasha and other members of the Kravinoff family. Kraven has tangled with other characters in the Marvel Comics universe, like Venom and Captain America, but Spider-Man will always be his greatest enemy.
Kaven the Hunter has appeared in various Spider-Man animated TV shows and video games, and his spear briefly appears during The Amazing Spider-Man 2 end credits. But like Mysterio, he's one of several Spider-Man villains who still hasn't been depicted in a theatrical setting, though there had been plans for Kraven to be part of the Sinister Six had the Amazing Spider-Man film series continued. Regardless, now that we know that Peter Parker will be hanging out in Europe for Spider-Man: Far From Home, throwing Kraven into the mix would make sense. It's doubtful that Peter will venture into Russia during this movie, but it would be easy enough to set up a scenario where Kraven learns that Spider-Man is active on his continent from news reports covering either Web-Head dealing with the normal breed of criminals or his first encounter with Mysterio. Seeing Spider-Man as a new kind of prey for him to hunt, this version of Kraven taps into his considerable resources, maybe drinks a special potion and then tracks down the superhero. When his first attempt to kill Spider-Man fails, he teams up with Mysterio to get the job done.
On the other hand, as Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 have shown us, Spider-Man movies don't have a great track record with using more than one main antagonist. It sounds like Mysterio already has that spot filled for Spider-Man: Far From Home, and while we don't know yet if Vulture will be antagonizing our intrepid hero again given that A, he's still in jail, and B, he lied to Mac Gargan about knowing Spider-Man's true identity, we can't rule out that he might don his winged suit once more. So yeah, including Kraven the Hunter in Spider-Man: Far From Home might feel like overkill. As an alternative, perhaps the events of this sequel put Spider-Man on Kraven's radar, and in the third MCU Spider-Man movie (let's be honest with ourselves, it's probably going to be made), that's when he pursues him. Taking the threequel route could also allow for Kraven to be paired with Chameleon, another member of the Spider-Man rogues gallery who hasn't appeared in a movie yet.
Spider-Man: Far From Home has officially begun principal photography, so more details about the sequel will surely be arriving in the coming months. Whether or not those will be about Kraven the Hunter remains to be seen, but given how long the character's been around, you can bet that there are quite a few Spider-Man fans who are eager to see him portrayed in live action, be it in this movie or another one. In any case, Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 5, 2019, and don't forget to look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else is in development for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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