We are still several days away from the release of “Kraven the Hunter,” but that isn’t stopping filmmaker J.C. Chandor from thinking about the future. In fact, he already knows where the ‘Kraven’ story is going to end.
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Speaking in a new interview with Collider, filmmaker J.C. Chandor talked about where he sees his new superhero film franchise going in the future. And if you’re a fan of the comic book inspiration for “Kraven the Hunter,” then you know exactly what he’s talking about.
“It’s essentially this building of a villain,” said Chandor. “The final piece in that, for Aaron and for me, was in ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt,’ which, if this thing works and is a success, that’s where we’d have this story end. It’s obviously very tragic and sad. The journey getting there is a wild crazy ride with a lot of fun, but the character we’re trying to create is one who could realistically, if this film is a success, end with ‘Last Hunt.’”
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For those who haven’t read the comics, “Kraven’s Last Hunt” is one of the most beloved stories in all of ‘Spider-Man’ mythos. The story follows Kraven in a battle with Spider-Man. He defeats Spider-Man and buries him alive. Kraven then puts on the Spider-Man costume to prove he can be just as good of a hero as Spidey. He does everything right except he is much more brutal than the real Spider-Man. Eventually, Spider-Man digs his way out of the grave and confronts Kraven. However, Kraven doesn’t fight back and decides that he has proven to the world that he is better than Spider-Man. That’s when Kraven goes home and ends his own life.
It’s an incredibly dark story. One that you have to assume would be heavily edited if it was made into a film. Honestly, you have to wonder how the film could adapt the story without Spider-Man. All of these ‘Spider-Man’ spinoff films have avoided using Spider-Man at all. So, the real question is whether you can do “Kraven’s Last Hunt” without Spider-Man.
That said, Chandor believes he is setting the stage for “Kraven’s Last Hunt.”
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“The rule I set for myself is by the final frame of our movie, you had to believe that character could live in a world where ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’ is a real thing,” Chandor said. “But in this part of the journey, he’s not there yet. It’s what I hope makes the story somewhat human. You’re getting to see the meetings in the road where one direction leads to ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt,’ and one leads to success and more moderated happiness.”
The elephant in the room has to be the fact that, outside of “Venom,” these ‘Spider-Man’ spinoff films have been horrible at the box office. Both “Morbius” and “Madame Web” were massive bombs when they were released. And honestly, the buzz around ‘Kraven’ hasn’t been great. So, we’ll have to wait and see if there’s enough financial success to warrant a ‘Kraven’ sequel.
“Kraven the Hunter” arrives in theaters on December 13.