With Kraven The Hunter, star Aaron Taylor-Johnson and director J.C Chandor set out to “ground” this defiantly over-the-top universe and create a grittier origin story more in line with the character’s villainous origins in the source material. For Taylor-Johnson, already a Marvel star via his role in Age Of Ultron, this was part of the attraction to returning to the genre.
He told Zavvi: “Some of the first conversations me and J.C had, alongside our producer Matt Tolmach, were about how we could ground this project, and make it realistic where possible. We talked about the potential of what we wanted to do with this character, the setting we wanted to take him to, and what the tone of the movie should be.
“The fact that J.C has done movies like A Most Violent Year, and comes from an independent filmmaking background that really prioritises shaping a character’s arc in a story, was very exciting. It was great to be able to take that approach with an iconic Marvel character.”
For Chandor, this approach was a no-brainer. From hard-boiled New York City crime dramas like A Most Violent Year, to disaster movie epics (All Is Lost) and tense heist thrillers (Triple Frontier), he’s always looking for a way to find realistic ways to tell stories in the most heightened genres.
He explained to Zavvi: “I start every project by viewing myself as audience member number one; every decision I make is based on whether it’s something I’d want to go and see in a movie myself. After seeing a lot of superhero films over the last 20 years, I felt there was a real opportunity to give an audience that theatrical experience with the crazy, unbelievable action sequences, whilst making sure that at the core, it was a more human family saga.
“There’s a good, old-fashioned Russian gangster film at the core of this thing, and my hope is that audiences will have a great Friday night out, but that the intimate character side can speak on a deeper level. I want people to find themselves thinking about that, and not the genre side, on the way home.”
People familiar with Chandor’s previous films were slightly baffled by his appointment as director here. He finds this confusing, as he doesn’t believe Kraven represents a departure from his previous work.
“Hopefully, when people see the film, they can safely put it on the shelf next to my other films. If you come into the film with an open heart and an open mind, you’ll see where it fits into that world, and I think people will realise it’s more like what I’ve done in the past than they currently expect.
“It seems a little weird when looking at my other films, but at heart I consider myself a genre filmmaker; I try to look at familiar genres from a different angle and put my own stamp on them. In a weird way, they’re sometimes analysing the genre they’re a part of, which isn’t something I like saying out loud – when you say that, people might not think they’re fun movies!
“I took this job in the middle of COVID, when theaters were boarded up. I have teenage kids, and I wanted to make something that would bring people back when they reopened; my goal was making something that my son and his friends would go out and see.”
Crucially, Kraven The Hunter isn’t an origin story, with the team taking inspiration from Kraven’s Last Hunt for the story, leaving the tale of how he became a hunter firmly within flashbacks. They’ve described it as a tale of how Kraven becomes a villain, but with an end point in mind, did they approach the character as a villain from the get-go?
Taylor-Johnson continued: “We're taking the audience on a journey of seeing how he becomes the iconic comic book character we know, and to do that, we need to explore the pretty dark demons he has and find the root of those.
“As you’ll see in this story, you will find yourself becoming empathetic towards him and understand why he goes down the path of becoming a villain. He’s got some fury to let out first, but he becomes the iconic Kraven that we all know, which is exciting for us to share.”
“He’s not Kraven the Hunter when we meet him”, Chandor added. “And he doesn’t really become the fully formed Kraven the Hunter until the very last frames of our movie.”
The pair are confident that the film we reignite audience interest in comic book movies at a time when every superhero movie is met with endless articles citing “superhero fatigue”. Chandor naturally downplays this - “if you make a good movie, people will come, and when I made Margin Call, there were five other movies about the stock market out, and people came!” - but Taylor-Johnson believes it has something new to offer in a saturated market.
“This is a movie with a lot of heart and soul, which stands on its own – it doesn’t need to be squeezed into the box of this genre. But I think it will definitely reignite that feeling of passion for the genre, for sure.”
Kraven The Hunter is released in UK cinemas on Friday, 13th December.Shop Marvel merch.
