Sony’s Spider-verse without Spider-Man continues as Kraven the Hunter squares off with another notable villain, The Rhino.

While Deadpool & Wolverine is the only MCU movie that will be hitting theaters this year, Sony’s Spider-verse still has two of its villain-ccentric films dropping this year with Venom: The Last Dance and Kraven The Hunter. These films will be released after another Spider-verse movie, Madame Web, made its impression earlier this year. It’s time to hit the game trail as Sony has now released the trailer for Kraven The Hunter.

The film opens December 13 after a couple of delays, in which producer Matt Tolmach explains, “Kraven moved to Christmas because we’re excited about it and Christmas is the best release period there is, when you get people with time to go back to the movies over and over again,” Tolmach said. “That was a real reflection of how the studio felt about the movie. We’re really excited. But that’s a great move that reflects just the feeling about the movie.“

J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier) directs from a script by Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Transformers: The Last Knight, Uncharted). Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, Christopher Abbott, Alessandro Nivola, Fred Hechinger, and Levi Miller join Taylor-Johnson as cast members.

Chandor says that his superhero film differentiates itself from the others as Kraven‘s story plays more like a tragedy. “Sony probably doesn’t want me to lead with this. but the story is a tragedy. When the final credits roll on this film, if you’ve been paying attention, you won’t have the feeling that this is all going to end great.”

Taylor-Johnson mentions that it was important to him to flesh out Kraven as a person, especially since he’s a hunter. “When you say stuff like ‘I’m the greatest hunter of all time,’ you’ve got to know deep within your being that it’s coming from a place of reality and depth, and feels like it’s possible and plausible.” The actor studied people who have that complicated relationship with animals, “You just grab little things. and they rub off, in ways, and they come in handy.” It was reported that he got into the mindset by stalking deer to feel “the emotional turmoil and the sense of guilt” that came with the hunt.

You can also get a look at the new poster below, which proudly displays its R-rating in red.

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.