Kraven the Hunter Director on How Important Marvel Canon Was in Making the Film (Exclusive)

Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the title character, Kraven the Hunter is the next chapter in the cinematic universe of Sony’s Spider-Man characters, a brand that has struggled to connect with audiences. While the Poison Trilogy managed to make enough money to pay the bills, Morbius And Madam Web failed hard, shaking audiences’ confidence that Sony can deliver a good cinematic performance with just Spider-Man villains, while the web crawler is nowhere to be seen. However, KravenDirector JC Chandor is confident that his film can break Sony’s curse. In an exclusive interview with ComicBook, Chandor explained how Kraven the Hunter He approaches comic book canon and how excited he is to share his faithful vision of the title character with fans.

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One of the main criticisms of Sony’s film universe is that the films change the backstories of many main characters, making them anti-heroes rather than true villains. These changes were necessary because removing Spider-Man from the formula forces characters like Tom Hardy’s Venom and Jared Leto’s Morbius to take on the role of a protagonist and fight against a greater threat than themselves. For longtime Spider-Man fans, that also means ignoring much of what makes them complex characters in comics.

(Related: Kraven the Hunter’s opening weekend box office could be lower than Morbius’s)

As Chandor tells us, Kraven the Hunter tries to do something different. The director understands that “the audience obviously takes the basic elements of the canon here very seriously – and so do we.” That’s why Chandor set himself the task of making the best Kraven solo film possible while also honoring the character’s layered comic book history respect.

“I think we always wanted to be in service of the film and make a great film that could stand on its own,” Chandor said. “And you don’t really have to know anything. But if so, then I really wanted to take it seriously. The nice thing about signing up for one of these films is that you can try to take this, you know, generational canon, make the most of it for your story and turn it into something fascinating. So I hope people see in our version of Kraven that we’ve gone back to basics.”

It’s not just the titular anti-hero whose comic story will be incorporated into the film. In our interview, Chandor emphasizes that he treats supporting characters with the same care.

“For some of the other characters, I don’t want to go into too much detail, but the Rhino, Calypso and definitely Chameleon – we found the same balance, even though we may have tweaked and updated some things. “It’s the spirit of those original books “he said. “I think if you know this canon and give us a chance, you will see that we are trying to build on the spirit of that original document.”

Will Kraven ever fight Spider-Man in the Sony universe?

While it’s good news that Chandor speaks passionately about respecting canon, it’s still strange to think of Kraven in a world without Spider-Man. However, Chandor wants his version of Kraven to face the web-slinger if he ever gets the chance to pursue a sequel. Chandor also knows exactly where he wants to take Kraven next: Kraven’s Last Huntthe quintessence of the villain’s story.

“For Aaron (Taylor-Johnson) and I, ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’ was basically our North Star,” he said. “So the character that we created, you know, if everyone comes out and supports the film and we can continue to tell this story, then that’s our goal. If people get a chance to see the entire film, I think they will realize that we were very serious about what we were trying to do.”

Kraven the Hunter will premiere exclusively in theaters on December 13, 2024.