Christopher Abbott Joins 'Kraven the Hunter' Cast

According to Deadline, Sony has poached yet another actor for its Kraven the Hunter film.

Sources close to the site say Christopher Abbott (Possessor, It Comes At Night) has been tapped to play the film’s main villain The Foreigner. This comes following news last week that Alessandro Nivola would be playing an antagonist in the film, meaning that Kraven will face-off against multiple characters in his first solo outing.

In addition to Nivola, Abbott joins the previously announced Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, and Ariana DeBose. Taylor-Johnson will play the titular character, while Hechinger will play his brother and fellow Spider-Man rogue Dmitri Smerdyakov a.k.a Chameleon. Crowe will play Kraven and Chameleon’s father, while DeBose will play the Marvel character Calypso.

Similar to Nivola, Abbott has picked up steam as a character actor over the last few years. This is most major mainstream role to date.

For those unfamiliar with the character of The Foreigner, like Kraven and Chameleon he’s one Spider-Man’s most formidable foes. Other than an ability to entrance his opponents through mere eye-contact, he possesses no superpowers and is a master assassin on-par with The Punisher. In the comics he has ties to both Silver Sable, Hobgoblin, and Sabretooth.

J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier) is directing with Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk writing the screenplay. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will be producing the film. Taylor-Johnson nabbed the leading role after execs at Sony were thrilled with his performance in the upcoming action flick Bullet Train. Production is expected to start in the coming weeks in the UK.

For those unfamiliar with the character, Sergei Kravenoff was born in Russia and became a big game hunter later in life, mostly in Africa. After drinking a witch doctor’s poison, he gained super-strength, enhanced reflexes, and high stamina. This allowed him to bring down bigger animals such as elephants and Gorillas. After a while, he grew tired of big game hunting, due to it being easy, and focused his attention on Spider-Man. Several defeats later, he became one of six members of the notorious villain team, The Sinister Six.

The film’s tone will reportedly be a mix of Man on Fire and Logan. Kraven The Hunter will hit theaters on January 13, 2023. The film joins a growing list of Spider-verse projects in various stages in development along with Madame Web, Spider-Woman, Morbius, and the ongoing Venom franchise.

SOURCE: Deadline