Aaron Taylor-Johnson Cast As Kraven the Hunter

11 Comments

1. @Aqu – If they wanted to do a standalone Kraven movie that introduces the character without Spider-Man, it *could* be done. I have no idea what what that movie would look like, but it *is* possible.

   But there’s no way that film could do KLH without changing the original story so drastically that it is unrecognizable. It would be both introducing a new character and asking the audience to understand a long history with Spider-Man that doesn’t already exist.

   It would be like doing the Infinity War story in the very first Iron Man movie. It would make no sense.

2. @hornacek: yeah, but that difference only makes it worse. My point was that if they greenlighted a Venom origin story movie without Spider-Man, they could as well do a KLH movie with his first screen appearance. Despite being kind of weird to adapt an ending story as the first story, the fact they could do it well or not, really depends on many factors as others said, but the precedents don’t forebode well.
   I’m beating a dead horse, here; as Tayo Jones said before me: these are Spider-Man villains, their story is linked intrinsically to his, so it has little sense doing movies only about them.

   As for Venom, I can accept some minor changes to his origin story, but take away his connection with Spider-Man and what he becomes? Venom is the anti-Spider-man by definition, a man with all of Spider-man’s powers and a distorted sense of heroism, tainted by his obsessive hatred for Peter.

3. This is dumb on many levels. Kraven should be introduced as an antagonist in a future Spider-man film not in his own solo film. When will the idiots at Sony learn ?

4. A film that introduces Kraven and also tells the audience that he’s fought Spidey many times over many years and has never won (which the audience has never seen) is just bad storytelling. Again, KLH only works because of the long history Spidey and Kraven have. It just doesn’t work in a film introducing the character.

   I could be proven wrong. But I highly doubt it.

5. There are a lot of one and done, amazing films, that tell the story of someone’s entire life. Would I prefer the serialised version of Spider-Man lore told over many years? Of course. But that doesn’t mean Kraven’s origin and Last Hunt couldn’t be adapted into a satisfying film. It would need a good actor, which I believe it has, and a good writer/director.

   I’m mostly playing devils advocate, as I think all of these solo villain movies are a waste of time without a Spider-Man, but I still thought Venom was pointless fun.

6. @Aqu – The difference there is that it’s Venom origin story, which has been changed in almost every adaptation of the original story. No (?) adaptation has done the whole Secret Wars origin, or the “Eddie Brock is a reporter for the Globe who loses his job due to Spidey capturing the real killer” origin.

   If they want to do a Kraven origin story, then they should do one. But KLH is not an origin story. It’s … whatever the opposite of an origin story is. It’s an ending story.

   As for my avatar, I never noticed that it was being used for other users before. That’s wild.

7. @hornacek
   I agree. However, I always thought the same about Venom (his origin being tied with Spider-man lore and history), but unfortunately that didn’t stop them from doing it.

   Anyway, you’re everywhere on the site. There’s some weird error displaying your avatar for everyone in the comments column on the right. It’s creepy. LOL

8. @AdamBParker – Sorry, but I just don’t see KLH working as a film where it’s Kraven’s first appearance. The story needs the history of Kraven being defeated by Spidey many times over the years. If it’s Kraven’s first time meeting Spidey then it can’t work at KLH.

9. I could see Kraven’s last hunt working as film, but you need a Spider-Man. Even in a minor role at the beginning and send of the film. Maybe Andrew Garfield?

10. Just as long as they don’t get Evan Peters to play Calypso.

11. Kraven is just not a compelling character able to hold his own film.

    His only good story is Fearful Symmetry (aka Kraven’s Last Hunt), which would be a *terrible* story to adapt for his first movie. That story only works because he’s an old man, looking back at all the times he’s fought Spidey, and lost.