MARVEL MARATHON DEEP DIVE
KRAVEN
THE HUNTER
Kraven the Hunter reached US cinemas on 13 December 2024 with J. C. Chandor directing Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff. It is rated R, runs 127 minutes and is the sixth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
A LONG ROAD TO THE SCREEN
HOW KRAVEN REACHED THE SCREEN
Richard Wenk was hired to write a Kraven screenplay in August 2018, Sony confirmed a film featuring Kraven was in development in March 2019, and J. C. Chandor was confirmed as director in May 2021 when Aaron Taylor-Johnson was cast. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway rewrote the script, and Taylor-Johnson confirmed an R rating, the first for a film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
The film moved from 13 January 2023 to 6 October 2023, then to 30 August 2024 because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, and finally to 13 December 2024. Filming took place in Iceland in early February 2022, at Lake Mývatn under the working title Safari, and principal photography began on 20 March 2022 in London under the working title Spiral, with further shooting in Glasgow. The budget was $110 million to $130 million, and Benjamin Wallfisch composed the score.
Chandor described the character’s physicality by comparing him to the “most incredible Olympic athlete you’ve ever seen.”
A HUNTER AND HIS FAMILY
WHO IS IN THE CAST
The cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff, Ariana DeBose as Calypso Ezili, Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Kravinoff, Alessandro Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich, or Rhino, Christopher Abbott as the Foreigner and Russell Crowe as Nikolai Kravinoff.
A DISAPPOINTING OPENING
HOW THE FILM WAS RELEASED AND WHAT IT EARNED
The film opened in the US on 13 December 2024, in IMAX and premium large formats. It opened to $11,001,109 in the US, finishing third behind Moana 2 and Wicked, and went on to earn $25,026,310 there and $62,076,533 worldwide. It was a box-office failure, and Deadline calculated a loss of $71 million.
THE REWATCH
A 15% CRITICS SCORE AND THE END OF A UNIVERSE
Rotten Tomatoes lists a 15% critics’ score from 161 reviews and a 72% audience score, and its consensus calls the film “a paper tiger.” Metacritic gives it 35 from 41 critics and a user score of 4.6, and audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a C. Tim Robey of The Telegraph gave it one star and said “this is rock bottom,” while Kevin Maher of The Times gave it three stars and said it “remains ludicrous to the end but it’s never anything less than entertaining.” The film received three Golden Raspberry nominations and won none.
It was reported in December 2024 that Kraven the Hunter would be the final film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, and Sony chairman Tom Rothman said in February 2026 that Sony planned to continue through a “fresh reboot.”
In the Marvel Marathon it is catalogued as Spider-Verse and sits in the Marvel movies in release order guide between Venom: The Last Dance and Captain America: Brave New World. In the Spider-Man movies in order guide it comes between Venom: The Last Dance and Spider-Noir Season 1. It is not in the MCU guides.
QUICK ANSWERS
KRAVEN THE HUNTER WATCH QUESTIONS
Do I need to watch other Spider-Man or Venom films first?
No. Kraven is the sixth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, but it tells its own origin story.
How long is Kraven the Hunter?
127 minutes (2 hours 7 minutes).
Is there a post-credits scene?
No.
Which Marvel Marathon guides include Kraven the Hunter?
It appears in the Marvel movies in release order and Spider-Man movies in order guides. It is not in the MCU guides.
EDITORIAL NOTES
SOURCES AND UPDATES
Development, production, release, box-office and reception details are checked against a film reference, box-office data and aggregator scores, cited individually below.