Kraven The Hunter: New Details About Russell Crowe’s Mystery Role In Anticipated Marvel Movie: Exclusive

Kraven The Hunter has added the legendary Russell Crowe to the cast in a mystery role and The Illuminerdi may have cracked the mystery.

Kraven The Hunter has added the legendary Russell Crowe to the cast in a mystery role and The Illuminerdi may have cracked the mystery.

Sony had an impressive year in 2021 with Venom: Let There Be Carnage grossing over $500 million worldwide and Spider-Man: No Way Home earning over $1.8 billion worldwide, making it the highest grossing movie of the year. And Sony is nowhere near done building out their own Sony Marvel Universe with Morbius premiering in theaters in a couple months. There has also been some exciting movement on a few other Sony Marvel films including Madame Web, which now has Dakota Johnson attached, and Kraven The Hunter, with Fred Hechinger and Russell Crowe joining the cast.

After The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Russell Crowe had been cast in a mystery role, with hints that his character could be related to the titular hero, we started doing some digging. According to our sources it seems Russell Crowe may be playing Nikolai Kravinoff the father of Sergei Kravinoff, aka Kraven The Hunter, and Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka Chameleon.

WHO COULD RUSSELL CROWE BE PLAYING IN KRAVEN THE HUNTER?

In the comics, Nikolai and his wife Anna Kravinoff were Russian aristocrats who raised their son Sergei in Volgograd Russia during the Russian Revolution. Nikolai fathered an illegitimate son, Dmitri, with Sonya Smerdyakova, one of the family’s servants. After the revolution came to an end the Kravinoffs were forced to flee eventually ending up in the United States. Nikolai died and Anna was remanded to an asylum where she committed suicide orphaning their son Sergei. Nikolai was not a kind father to either of his sons.

After the death of his parents Sergei Kravinoff learned to stay alive by his own cunning and begins traveling eventually ending up in Africa. While in Africa Kraven discovers his natural talent for hunting, eventually becoming a renowned big game hunter and gains enhanced abilities from an herbal elixir.

Details about Kraven The Hunter’s plot are being kept under wraps, but with his half-brother Chameleon, love interest Calypso, and now it seems his father Nikolai Kravinoff being a part of the film it seems likely this project will be following the examples of Venom and Morbius, diving into the titular character’s origins. Kraven often toes the line between villain and anti-hero tending to cross the line into full-fledged villain whenever Spider-Man comes into the picture. It will be fascinating to see how he is portrayed in Kraven The Hunter, with the potential for the character to lean more into the anti-hero route like Venom has in Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

It will be interesting to see how prominently Russell Crowe is featured in the film. Will Kraven The Hunter begin with the titular character’s past in Russia or will flashbacks be incorporated throughout the film? Could Kraven be haunted by memories of his father even after the man’s death? It will also be interesting how Nikolai is portrayed in the film and the effect his parenting has on Sergei and Dmitri, who Nikolai saw as a disgrace. Kraven The Hunter could potentially dive into both character’s perspectives of their pasts especially if there is some sort of confrontation between the two in the film. Hopefully more will become clear as the release date grows near.

Kraven The Hunter is scheduled to hit theaters January 13, 2023. Are you excited to see Kraven The Hunter? Do you think Russell Crowe will be playing Nikolai Kravinoff, Kraven’s father? How do you think this could play into the film? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media and check back with The Illuminerdi for more Sony Marvel and Kraven The Hunter.

KEEP READING: KRAVEN THE HUNTER: SONY TAPS FRED HECHINGER TO PLAY CHAMELEON, THE TITULAR CHARACTER’S INFAMOUS HALF BROTHER