Russell Crowe to join Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the new Marvel film Kraven the Hunter

Virgin Radio

10 Feb 2022, 10:21

The actor will be returning to the world of superheroes and supervillains as he takes a role in Sony’s new Marvel movie.

In May last year, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was signed to play the lead character in Kraven the Hunter as part of a multi-picture deal.

Now, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Russell Crowe will be joining the cast- although it is not yet clear who he will be playing.

It has also been revealed that a lot of the main characters in Kraven the Hunter will be the title character’s family members.

Could Russell be playing Kraven’s aristocrat father?

The character of Kraven was, of course, created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko and first appeared in The Amazing Spiderman #15 comic back in 1964.

Sony’s movie will follow that original character and centres around the story of Sergei Nikolaievich Kravinoff AKA Kraven, who is the son of a Russian aristocrat forced to flee the country in 1917 after the collapse of the Tsarist Regime.

Kraven ends up becoming the world’s greatest game hunter, and, in the comic, the villain sets his sights on Spiderman.

Sort of like Bain, he lives his life through his own unique code of honour and strictly does not hunt with weapons, just his bare hands. Kraven also has superhuman abilities (of course) thanks to drinking a cup of witches brew in his earlier years.

Plans to put Kraven the Hunter in other Marvel films have been in the works for a number of years, but this will be the first time the villain appears on the big screen.

His iconic spear did feature in the end-credits scene in the 2014 Amazing Spider-Man 2 with a teaser of a new villainous group called The Sinister Six, which Kraven is a founding member of in the comics.

However, the third Amazing Spider-Man movie didn’t happen and therefore neither did a Sinister Six movie.

There were also rumours of Kraven making an appearance in the 2018 Black Panther Film and the 2019 hit Spider-Man: Far From Home, but that didn’t happen either.

Finally, the villain is now getting some recognition.

Russell Crowe is no stranger to the Marvel Universe either, as he is starring alongside Liam Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, RZA in Thor: Love and Thunder, where he will be playing Zeus, The God of Thunder.

A release date has not yet been confirmed for Kraven the Hunter.