‘Kraven the Hunter’ The First R-rated Marvel movie from Sony

Sony Pictures’ Cinemacon panel revealed Kraven the Hunter will be the company’s first R-rated superhero film. The first footage for the upcoming movie, set for release on Oct. 6, featured blood, guts, and the titular supervillain biting the nose off a poacher.

Kraven’s teaser trailer was shown exclusively at CinemaCon, so it won’t be available online. Throughout the footage, Kraven takes out poachers and mercenaries in bloody combat; think Logan, Rambo, or John Wick.

I guess the nose-biting thing has to do with Taylor-Johnson‘s view of Kraven being an environmentalist and an animal lover. According to Discussing Film: “Things kick off with Kraven stopping a group of poachers in the wild who are trying to escape with their bounties of wild animal carcasses.” Sony has confirmed Kraven the Hunter as their first rated R Marvel film, and the footage shows Kraven killing everyone like a beast.

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Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter bites a piece of a poacher’s face off and spits out the blood as he uses weapons, his hands, and even his teeth. Aside from jumping off walls, he pounces on foes like an animal. Russell Crowe plays his father, who is the main conflict of the movie he’s the one who actually raised him in the extreme ways of hunter vs prey.”

Kraven, whose real name is Sergei Kravinoff, is a comic book character whose life’s mission is to hunt down the most dangerous people and beat them in honorable single combat, no matter what they think. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the original Spider-Man creative team, created him to resemble the bloodthirsty Russian aristocrat General Zaroff from Richard Connell’s famous 1924 short story, the title of which is now a euphemism for hunting humans for sport. For the ravenous teen reader of the 1960s, “The Most Dangerous Game” is now available in comic book form.

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The secret to his comic book utility, and therefore his longevity, lies in this motivation. Even though he began his existence by claiming Spider-Man is the most dangerous human in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a frankly ridiculous claim), he is a villain that can be inserted into nearly any superhero story. Kraven can set his sights on Captain America one month, and on Black Panther the next. It’s almost like it’s the same thing as Captain America, but cat-themed. It’s even been Squirrel Girl, one of New York City’s wiliest prey animals.

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We’re not just talking about Marvel here. Stalker is the “shirtless guy, bored of killing animals, gotta move up to the coolest humans” villain of Batman Beyond. Kraven is a bombastic, versatile antagonist beneath his porn stache, leopard print leggings, and open vest made from a lion’s head.

But it does make one wonder: Why not just make an original action flick, nose biting and all, if we are changing the character’s core motivation, keeping him separated from superheroes, and, as the CinemaCon footage seemed to indicate, not even putting him in a superhero costume?

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