There are tons of exciting comic book films still to come in 2023. However, while The Guardians of Galaxy and The Flash have been receiving most of the press, there’s one Spider-Verse film that still has a lot of question marks surrounding it. That would be Kraven the Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the title Spider-Man villain. The film is set to release in October and Sony has finally given Marvel fans some much-needed information on their latest attempt at a villain-centric tale at CinemaCon. This includes revealing that Alessandro Nivola will be playing Rhino in Kraven.
This would be the second big screen outing for Rhino who was last seen in the less-than-stellar The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Paul Giamatti played a much more realistic robotic version of the character in that film. For anyone who’s not familiar with this famous villain, Aleksei Sytsevich aka Rhino first appeared in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man in 1966. The character underwent treatment that gave him artificial rhino-looking skin and super strength. He’s one of Spidey’s toughest foes because of that, but over the years the villain has been given many different iterations like the mech suit version mentioned previously.
While it’s unclear what kind of Rhino Nivola will play, the actor has made quite the impressive film resume over the last two decades. This includes having roles in films like Face/Off, Jurassic Park 3, Selma, The Red Sea Diving Resort, The Many Saints of Newark, and Amsterdam. Nivola was most recently seen in the Hulu film Boston Strangler. It’s going to be very interesting to see what kind of role Rhino will play in this upcoming film and what kind of relationship he’ll share with Kraven. The audience at CinemaCon received their first look at Rhino in exclusive footage, but given Kraven’s background and Rhino’s animal motif, these two Spider-Man villains may be hunting one another.
What’s Karven the Hunter About?
While there’s still a lot of unknowns with Kraven’s plot, the film will follow Sergei Kravinoff as he embarks on his journey to become the world’s greatest hunter and the Kraven Marvel fans know well from the comics. While Spider-Man’s usually the villain’s top prize, the film is most likely not going to have an appearance from the iconic Web-Head. This Rhino news all but confirms who Kraven will be after in this film. It was also announced at CinemaCon that this film will be rated R which opens up the door for a much darker and more obsessive story that’s in line with how the villain is portrayed in the comics. Along with Taylor-Johnson and Nivola, Kraven stars Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Ariana DeBose, and Christopher Abbott.
When Does Kraven the Hunter Release?
Kraven the Hunter releases in theaters on October 6, 2023. The first trailer for Kraven is set to debut sometime this Summer, most likely ahead of the highly anticipated release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Until then, you can view the trailer for Across the Spider-Verse down below: