WTF Sony? Kraven the Hunter to be an ‘Animal Lover’ in Upcoming Film

As we’ve previously reported, Sony is producing another Spider-Man spinoff film. Kraven the Hunter, another iconic Spidey villain, in the vein of Venom and Morbius, will be released next year and features Aaron Taylor-Johnson in his third superhero role.

However, after Taylor-Johnson referred to Kraven as a “animal lover” in a new interview, some fans are rightfully worried about the quality of this new film. Kraven, a comics character first introduced in 1960s, is a larger-than-life big game hunter who wears bizarre costumes made almost exclusively from animal pelts. Although he frequently plays a villain, due to his strong sense of honor, he occasionally plays an antihero.

Like most classic Marvel Comics characters, he’s evolved over the decades. However a lot of comics fans were quick to make fun of this film version being described as an “animal lover and a protector of the natural world,” with many people dunking on the idea of “Kraven the PETA member,” and predicting that the film will flop worse than Morbius.

The idea of a vegan pacifist Kraven the Hunter is pretty silly, but the the quote as it appears in the original Variety article, shows Taylor-Johnson confirming that Kraven will still be a hunter in the upcoming movie, but portrayed as an antihero rather than a villain, similar to Venom’s Eddie Brock.

Taylor Johnson also spoke about his experience shooting “Kraven the Hunter,” who he described as “one of Marvel’s most iconic, notorious anti-heroes — Spider Man’s number one rival.” He said he found exciting the fact that this character is “not an alien, or a wizard. He’s just a hunter, a human with conviction. An animal lover and a protector of the natural world. He’s a very, very cool character.” 

The “animal lover” comment is still baffling. Sadly, press outlets like Variety don’t know enough about the comics canon to have asked a follow up question that would have perhaps offered more clarity to the statements. 

Nonetheless, after Sony botched Morbius, and Venom 2 was so awful, I have no preconceived notions that their Kraven the Hunter is going to be any better, regardless of his fondness of animals.