Kraven The Hunter Director Already Has Plans for a Sequel

If Kraven The Hunter is a hit at the box office, director J.C. Chandor knows exactly what film he’s doing next.

That film is an adaptation of popular comic book Kraven’s Last Hunt, which was published by Marvel in 1987. In it, Kraven takes on Spider-Man in an obsessive bid to prove himself superior, at one point burying him alive and wearing Spider-Man’s costume.

“It’s essentially this building of a villain,” Chandor tells Collider. “The final piece in that, for Aaron [Taylor-Johnson] and for me, was in Kraven’s Last Hunt, which, if this thing works and is a success, that’s where we’d have this story end. It’s obviously very tragic and sad. The journey getting there is a wild crazy ride with a lot of fun, but the character we’re trying to create is one who could realistically, if this film is a success, end with Last Hunt.”

Kraven The Hunter is the origin story of one of Spider-Man’s core villains. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven, it sees him quest to become the most feared hunter in the world. While a Sony Pictures production and not part of the MCU, Chandor nonetheless has plans to incorporate Marvel’s arguably most famous character if his film’s a hit.

There’s no getting away from the fact Kraven is ostensibly a bad guy, with a horrible history of violence since his comic debut in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man #15. That said, so is Venom, and he starred in a trilogy of films culminating in 2024’s Venom: The Last Dance. Chandor says he has ways of making Kraven sympathetic.

“You’re rooting for him. The rule I set for myself is by the final frame of our movie, you had to believe that character could live in a world where Kraven’s Last Hunt is a real thing. But in this part of the journey, he’s not there yet. It’s what I hope makes the story somewhat human. You’re getting to see the meetings in the road where one direction leads to Kraven’s Last Hunt, and one leads to success and more moderated happiness.”

“If I succeeded, and I haven’t been this scared starting a film going back to All is Lost, where I was like, ‘I may not have a movie when it was over.’ What we’ve tried to do is have it be a Marvel film, and by the third act, it is, but even the stunt work is meant to be totally integrated into the world you and I live in.”

Kraven The Hunter also features Russell Crowe as Kraven’s father, and Gladiator II star Fred Hechinger. It releases 13 December 2024.