Kraven The Hunter"s JC Chandor Reveals Lessons Learned From Venom & Morbius, Teases Knull Possibilities

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JC Chandor is diving into the world of comic book movies with Kraven The Hunter. The filmmaker has been on a real hot streak since making his feature directorial debut with 2011"s Margin Call, quickly following it up with the Robert Redford-led survival drama All is Lost and the Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain-starring crime drama A Most Violent Year. Prior to the Sony"s Spider-Man Universe film, Chandor expanded his talents to big-budget filmmaking with Netflix"s Triple Frontier, which reunited him with Isaac.
Kraven the Hunter marks the sixth installment in the SSU, exploring the origins of the titular Sergei Kravenoff who, as a young boy, was left behind by his father during a lion attack. Now, having raised himself and acquired extreme abilities of survival and fighting, Kraven sets off on a quest for vengeance to take down his crime lord father, while also going up against his half-brother and a mercenary, both of whom have their own animal-like transforming abilities.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson leads the ensemble Kraven the Hunter cast in the titular role alongside Russell Crowe as his villainous father, Ariana Debose as Kraven"s love interest Calypso, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Abbott. Gradually building out the world of the SSU while also becoming the first R-rated installment in the series, the movie looks to be a brutal and action-packed new direction for the franchise.

Related 10 Reasons Kraven The Hunter Can Finally Get Sony's Spider-Man Universe On Track Kraven the Hunter has everything in its favor to revolutionize Sony"s Spider-Man Universe, from the casting and the R rating to the character choice.
Posts Ahead of Kraven The Hunter"s December 13 theatrical release, ScreenRant spoke with Chandor about who Kraven is, how the R-rating impacts the story, what lessons he learned from Sony Pictures" prior villain films in developing the upcoming movie, and what familiar comic book faces could be next on Kraven"s hit list.
Kraven The Hunter Is A "Classic Origin Story" Director JC Chandor Details Kraven's Structure

ScreenRant: When we first see Kraven, at least in the footage that I saw, he"s breaking out of prison. Who is Kraven when we first meet him?

JC Chandor: I don"t want to give away too much structural stuff, but there"s that opening scene that we also showed at Comic-Con that is sort of a classic great teaser opening. At that point, he"s a fully formed individual. He"s the character that you"re going to get to know in the film. I will say, and I guess I"ve said this publicly, but we"ve structured the film like a classic comic book origin story. The first film I ever saw in a theater was Richard Donner"s Superman.
I"m a sucker for a classic origin story, and so there is a good chunk in the beginning of our film that then goes back to sort of a formative period in the brothers" lives, and then we kind of rejoin our story again. That opening that you saw is intended to just get you into the world, let you know who this guy is, and I think it is pretty safe to say that he"s a guy who"s operating outside of the law. He"s a vigilante. He"s attempting to commit his form of justice in the world, but that"s a slightly ethical gray area that he"s operating in.

Kraven's R-Rating Goes Beyond Violence The Film Will Tackle Adult Themes In Its Story

That opening scene, we really get to see the R-rated violence firsthand, and it was awesome. When people see an R-rating in comic book movies, they expect a bit more blood, a bit more viscerality. What other elements of being able to play with an R-rating do you feel like aided Kraven"s production process?

JC Chandor: When the studio brought that up to us, it was frankly not something that I took lightly. I"ve got a 14-year-old son that goes to these movies, and so it"s not something that we just jumped into without really thinking it through. When you go back, and you really dive into the source material, you start to realize that the Kraven storyline is a dark journey. And so, while we were absolutely excited to be able to play with a far more intense physicality and a little bit more of a stylized grindhouse-style physical violence in the movie, what also opened itself up is the sort of emotional violence at the core of the Kraven character in the comic books. Anyone who knows that storyline knows that there is an element with his mother and her mental illness and what that led for in the character.
Then mental illness kind of follows in and out through the Kraven mythos. We"ve got this amazing relationship with Russell Crowe, who plays the father in the film, that is really kind of the backbone of the emotional struggle of the film and then the brother"s relationship. I guess quick answer is that not only were we able to really play with the physical side of it, but I don"t want to give too much away, but when people see the film, I think they will realize that we"re also addressing a bunch of issues and really tackling how a villain is made a little bit more head on character wise than you ever would be able to with a PG rating.

How Did Kraven The Hunter Learn From Venom, Morbius & Madame Web? "I've been able to watch that process and be apart of it..."

Sony is no stranger to taking these Spider-Man villains and putting them front and center. We"ve seen it with Venom, we"ve seen it with Morbius, now we"re seeing it with Kraven. We saw it with Madame Web as well, all to varying levels of audience satisfaction. I would love to just get your thoughts on learning from the past. What did you take away from those prior anti-hero/villain movies set at the center stage, and how did that impact how you told Kraven"s story?

JC Chandor: It"s a great question and obviously you guys are steeped enough into this world. I"m not going to fool anyone to think that all of those movies were the success that everyone wanted them to be. And so I"ve been able to watch that process and be a part of it. For me, this all starts with where it has with every movie I"ve ever made, which is I got to treat my own little world. I made Margin Call and there were like five other stockbroker movies in development at that time. The simple challenge for me always is make as great a movie as you possibly can. Every day you wake up [and think], "What can you do to make the story that you are trying to tell better?" All I can control is I go out and try and make the best movie, cast the best people, create the best action scenes, create the best drama, create the best story that I"m able to do.
That was number one. It was just worry about your own house. But we did learn some things for sure about it in a way that plays into that, which is like, let"s not try to have this be telling 16 different stories at once, right? Let"s make a really good movie at its core and where that goes will take care of it of itself. I didn"t to want give away the details of what we got going on, but I think from a structural standpoint, it was about telling a movie that stands by itself that is certainly a Marvel film that has the Rhino and has Foreigner and has Chameleon and has Calypso. It is this amazing group of characters that we"ve pulled together that are certainly drawn from all of the lore and all of the canon, which I hope people will be really excited about what we"ve done, but in a way, the movie can stand on its own, and you can walk into this movie knowing everything about all of that and nothing, and it really will hopefully work for you in both ways.
Last thing I think was this sort of anti-hero thing, which I think as following this whole world is a very kind of controversial thing that they"ve tried to do at times. And again, not trying to give away too much of what we"ve done, but we have structured this movie as a classic origin story. It"s going to tell you in a really fun way that this is the journey that this character"s on. If you know the Kraven storyline, and you take this stuff as seriously as we"ve had, and we have, when that last frame of our movie comes up, I think people will be excited that Kraven is teed up in that he will be teed up to go and carry on this journey towards villainy because that is the heart of this character. He doesn"t start the movie off in that place. I think that"s what makes the film really cool, actually, is that you get to see that journey, but this is a family saga that if anyone knows Kraven"s Last Hunt and loves that, that"s a place for Aaron and I, that was a hallmark of why we signed up to do this, and we"ve created a character that over time it will make sense that he ends up there.

Chandor Has Ideas In Mind For Future Kraven Face-Offs (But It's Down To The Audience) "Either of those guys would be a pretty fun opportunity..."

I"ll leave you with this before we officially wrap up. Obviously, it seems like the future is bright for this character moving forward. I got two names for you. Who is a bigger prey for Kraven after this film? Spider-Man or Knull?

JC Chandor: Well, that I can"t say. Here"s what I"ll say in response to that. The Kraven that Aaron has created and that we have created with him, the physical skills, the limitations, both emotional and physically, the ability for him to adapt and the fragile ego of Kraven, which I think is something that this is a character that can be goaded into situations and thinks he"s sort of always right. I think what we"re most excited about is that we created a character that wants to go out into this world and show what he"s capable of.
Either of those guys would be a pretty fun opportunity, but people got to come out. I think that"s the key thing here. There"s a lot of sniping that"s been going on that I"ve been watching over the last three years about all these films. Our hope is that people, especially people that take these things pretty seriously, will understand that we"ve put our hearts into this. We"ve been working on it for three years. We think we"ve raised the bar storytelling-wise to a whole nother level. I can hold this film up against any other film I"ve ever made story-wise.
Action, it"s not even close, but I can hold this film up against anything I"ve done, and I"m really proud of the storytelling we"ve done and if people come out and support it, we"ll be able to have a lot of fun with the character. So we"ll see. Come December 13, please come out and come in with an open mind and an open heart and see if you like what we"ve done.

About Kraven The Hunter Close Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the titular role, Kraven The Hunter brings one of Spider-Man"s most famed foes to live-action life for the first time. The JC Chandor-directed picture pits Taylor-Johnson"s hunter opposite his father (Russell Crowe) and the Rhino (Alessandro Nivola) as he embarks on a quest for vengeance and, consequently, a path of villainy.
Check out ScreenRant"s other Kraven The Hunter interview with Aaron Taylor-Johnson!

Kraven the Hunter hits theaters on December 13.

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Kraven the Hunter R ActionAdventure Sci-Fi Kraven the Hunter explores the origin story of Sergei Kravinoff, known as Kraven, as he navigates his tumultuous relationship with his father, Nikolai. This path of vengeance sets Kraven on a journey to become a formidable hunter with a reputation for fearsome brutality.
Director J.C. Chandor Release Date December 13, 2024 Studio(s) Sony Distributor(s) Sony Writers Art Marcum , Richard Wenk , Matt Holloway Cast Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Russell Crowe , Fred Hechinger , Ariana DeBose , Christopher Abbott , Alessandro Nivola , Levi Miller , Chi Lewis-Parry , Billy Barratt , Jessica Zhou , Michael Shaeffer , Dritan Kastrati , Greg Kolpakchi , Elander Moore , Filiz Fairweather , Duran Fulton Brown , Alex Skarbek , Rachel Handshaw , Preslav Shipkaliev , Murat Seven , Robert Ryan Character(s) Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven , Nikolai Kravinoff , Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon , Calypso , The Foreigner , Aleksei Sytsevich aka The Rhino , Young Sergei , Big Rhino , Young Dmitri , Passerby , André , Oleksander , Guard , Law Firm Receptionist , Restaurant Diner , Sniper 2 , Russian Captain , Cora's Mum , Prison Officer , Ömer Aksoy , Russian Prisoner Runtime 127 Minutes Franchise(s) Marvel Comics , Marvel Cinematic Universe Budget 130 million Main Genre Adventure Expand

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