Earlier this week, Sony’s Spider-Verse nabbed itself a new villain with the casting of Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven the Hunter. The 30-year-old actor known for his role in Kick-Ass and Pietro Maximoff in Avengers: Age of Ultron is taking on a brand new comic book role, but this time he’ll play one of Spider-Man’s most notorious villains in the character’s own film.
Now that we know who is playing Kraven the Hunter, we’re certainly curious how he will look in costume since the character often wears the fur of a cheetah as pants and a lion's head vest. Digital artist Boss Logic has put in the work and here’s how he envisions Aaron Taylor-Johnson will look like as the Spider-Verse baddie:
The popular artist has the actor donning long sweeping hair, a major beard and the character’s lion head around his shoulders as we know him. He’s looking down with a serious expression on his face and probably planning his next hunt. Kraven is a character of Russian descent who has enhanced physical powers through a powerful potion and the strength, senses and speed of the jungle cats he wears as clothes. He also has an extended life span as well.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has done an accent close to Russian (the fictional Sokovian) before as the twin brother of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda, Pietro Maximoff or Quicksilver for the MCU. So if he decides to pick up an accent for Kraven, he’s already halfway there. What remains to be seen is the specific vision for Sony’s Kraven the Hunter flick which is dated for release in early 2023.
The movie is set to be directed by Triple Frontier’s J.C. Chandor from a script by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who have previously written Men in Black: International and Transformers: the Last Knight together, along with Richard Wenk who worked with the writing pair for 2008’s Iron Man. Kraven’s typical motivations center around his deep need to prove he’s the greatest hunter in the world though, so we’d imagine the movie would too.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has established himself as a powerful dramatic actor, memorably taking on roles in Nocturnal Animals, 2014’s Godzilla, Anna Karenina and Tenet. The actor will soon star in The King’s Man and Bullet Train, the latter reportedly leading to getting the part of Kraven when Sony executives saw footage of him in the Brad Pitt-led movie.
Kraven the Hunter follows Sony’s growing Spider-Verse after Venom became a hit, and the sequel Let There Be Carnage along with Morbius on the way from the universe. Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven is coming on January 23, 2023. Until then, what do you think of the casting choice? Are you excited for the Age of Ultron actor to take on the Spidey villain? Vote in our poll below.
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