Russell Crowe Joins Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Sony Marvel Movie ‘Kraven the Hunter’ (Exclusive)

Russell Crowe is set to join Sony’s Marvel movie Kraven the Hunter.

The Oscar winner will star alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who last year signed a multipicture deal to play the titular antihero, with the first film slated for a Jan. 13, 2023, release. Story details, including Crowe’s role, are being kept in a cage, but many of the main characters are said to be Kraven’s family members.

J.C. Chandor is directing the film from a screenplay by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing.

Kraven, who is one of Spider-Man’s best-known nemeses, made his comic debut all the way back in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man No. 15, with the character created by Spider-Man co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The Russian big-game hunter decided to target the most dangerous foe he could imagine: Spider-Man. Over his long tenure in the comics, Kraven is perhaps best known for the classic 1980s storyline “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” in which the villain succeeds in defeating Spider-Man, burying him alive, and assuming his identity.

Kraven is one of a number of projects in development as the studio builds out its Sony Universe of Marvel Characters. Sony, which controls the film rights to Spider-Man and other related characters, has already released Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) and has the Jared Leto starrer Morbius due out in April. The studio is also developing a Madame Web movie with Dakota Johnson attached to star.

Kraven will be Crowe’s second entrée into Marvel filmmaking. On the Disney side, the actor is set to play Zeus in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, opening in July. His other upcoming onscreen roles include Apple and Skydance’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever, and he is currently directing Poker Face, which he also stars in alongside Liam Hemsworth and RZA.

He is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners.