Russell Crowe Joins Cast of Sony’s Kraven the Hunter Spider-Man Film

Russell Crowe is set to join Sony’s Marvel movie Kraven the Hunter, THR reports.

The Oscar winner will star alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who last year signed a multipicture deal to play the titular antihero, with the first film slated for a Jan. 13, 2023, release. Story details, including Crowe’s role, are being kept in a cage, but many of the main characters are said to be Kraven’s family members.

J.C. Chandor is directing the film from a screenplay by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing.

Kraven, who is one of Spider-Man’s best-known nemeses, made his comic debut all the way back in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man No. 15, with the character created by Spider-Man co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The Russian big-game hunter decided to target the most dangerous foe he could imagine: Spider-Man. Over his long tenure in the comics, Kraven is perhaps best known for the classic 1980s storyline “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” in which the villain succeeds in defeating Spider-Man, burying him alive, and assuming his identity.

Kraven will be Crowe’s second entrée into Marvel filmmaking. On the Disney side, the actor is set to play Zeus in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, opening in July.