After a few years of delays, Sony’s Kraven the Hunter – the latest installment in the studio’s line of Spider-Man-adjacent spinoff films – is now playing in theaters. The Aaron Taylor-Johnson led film marks the revered comic book villain’s first appearance in a live-action film, and some have been waiting years to see him on the silver screen. Interestingly, a version (or variant) of the hunter could’ve appeared sooner. That’s because he could’ve joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe years ago. Let’s discuss why it didn’t happen.
How Could Kraven The Hunter Have Joined The MCU Years Ago?
Longtime Spidey comic book readers are surely aware of the antagonistic history between the wall crawler and Sergei Kravinoff. So you might be tempted to assume that he may have been considered for 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. However, it was actually the filmmaker of another major MCU flick that wanted to utilize the character. Director Ryan Coogler revealed that he wanted to use Kraven in his acclaimed film, Black Panther:
I’ve always loved Kraven the Hunter in almost every iteration. So there was a moment – ‘Can I grab Kraven?’ – and they were [like], ‘Nah, you don’t have Kraven.’ He was one where I thought ‘Oh, man.’ But I don’t even know if he would have worked in the movie we ended up with, this was the early days.
As the Fruitvale Station helmer explained during his 2018 interview with Yahoo! UK, he was inspired to use the Hunter by Christopher Priest’s Black Panther comics run. Those books saw Kraven coming to blows with T’Challa and, quite frankly, it could’ve been cool to see that happen in a live-action movie. The filmmaker didn’t go into immense detail about why he couldn’t use the character, one gets the feeling that Marvel Studios simply vetoed the request. (Though I wonder if that was partially due to any legal red tape involving Sony.)
It’s interesting to consider what could’ve been, but I’d say that everything worked out well for Ryan Coogler’s inaugural MCU film. Coogler was able to include two strong antagonists in (now-fan-favorite) Erik Killmonger and Klaw. As for Kraven, this actually wasn’t the only time that he was ever considered for a production set in the cinematic universe.
What Other Move Nearly Marked Kraven’s MCU Introduction?
Box office hit Spider-Man: No Way Home received praise for its multiversal storyline and for how it brought back OG Spidey movie characters. Before all that happened though, that storyline wasn’t a sure thing. Tom Holland told Collider back in 2021 that director Jon Watts pitched another idea to him in case the multiverse tale didn’t work out:
For a long time, there was going to be a Kraven movie that was going to be the third movie because things weren’t working out and all sorts of different stuff. Jon pitched me this Kraven movie, which actually was really cool. I don’t want to talk about it in case that movie ends up happening down the line, but it was fun.
Kraven The Hunter Review: Sony's Spider-Man Universe Trilogy Of 2024 Duds Is Complete
I enjoyed No Way Home’s story as it was presented, though I also would’ve loved to have seen Tom Holland’s friendly neighborhood hero tangle with a version of Kraven. From a narrative perspective, it also would’ve made sense for Kravinoff to seek out Peter Parker after his secret identity was exposed to the world. Said story could’ve possibly even served as a version of the iconic comic storyline “Kraven’s Last Hunt.”
Fans will never know how Kraven’s appearances in the aforementioned MCU films might’ve played out. What is known is that critics aren’t high on Kraven the Hunter, as they’ve criticized the script, visual effects and more thus far. Given the reception to the 2024 movie schedule release, one has to wonder if we’ll ever see the character on screen again after this. I’m not sure, but I’ll say that I’d still love to see the feared hunter appear in the MCU at some point.
Kraven the Hunter is now playing in theaters nationwide. Also, be sure to read up on upcoming Spider-Man movies as well as forthcoming superhero films.
