Sony is doing everything it can to get the world hyped for Kraven the Hunter, the first R-rated installment of their fledgling Marvel villain universe. Despite its potential, though, the franchise still needs all the help it can get. It’ll take more than brutal, John Wick-inspired action and the beefy Aaron Taylor-Johnson to truly win the masses. (It doesn’t help that the film has been pushed back so many times, that people are starting to forget it even exists.)
Still, Sony’s not-quite-Spideyverse has a trick or two up its sleeve. As Kraven creeps closer to its December release date, the studio has dropped yet another ultraviolent trailer. This new promo focuses less on Sergei Kravinoff’s bizarre origin story — it’s kind of like Spider-Man’s, but with a lion instead of a radioactive spider — and more on his vague quest for revenge. Kraven follows Johnson’s huntsman as he traverses the world, moving down mercenaries in what seems like an attempt to sever ties with his dad (Russell Crowe, sporting yet another baffling accent).
If not for his superhuman feats and affinity for animal pelts, Kraven’s first big-screen outing would have the look and feel of a grounded crime saga. At the end of the day, though, this film is still about Spider-Man villains. Expect appearances from the voodoo priestess Calypso (Ariana DeBose), the mercenary known as the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), and Spider-Man’s first-ever adversary, Chameleon (Fred Hechinger). Kraven’s latest trailer also gives us our first real look at the Rhino (Alessandro Nivola), a villain that Sony has been trying to crack for the past decade. Check out his encounter with Kraven below.
While Kraven embarks on his hunt, he may find himself a target in the Foreigner’s machinations. The villain discusses Kraven and his hit list with Nivola’s Rhino, a man formerly known as Aleksei Sytsevich. The Kraven trailer teases his transition from Eastern European enforcer to bona fide supervillain, and it’s an interesting departure from the comics.
Rhino is so named because of an armored exo-suit modeled after rhinoceros hide. He undergoes a series of experiments to become a kind of super soldier; after months of radiation therapy, his armor is permanently bonded to his skin.
Though Kraven takes a more organic approach to Aleksei’s powers (like the Hulk, it seems like he can phase in and out of his Rhino form), it’s not the first Sony film to bring the character to the big screen. Rhino was last seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2; portrayed by Paul Giamatti, of all people. This iteration of the character was much truer to the comics, and he was just one of many villains featured in the film. It was a part of Sony’s ambitious plans to set up the Sinister Six, Spider-Man’s greatest band of villains — but in an already-overstuffed film, it came off as a massive misstep.
Plans for future Spidey movies were scrapped soon after: Sony rebooted its Marvel universe with Venom, and Giamatti’s Rhino was never seen again. A decade later, though, the franchise is giving it one more go. A new Rhino may not pave the way for that Sinister Six film Sony’s always wanted, but Kraven is definitely a better fit for a villain that takes after a wild animal.
