"You didn't see that coming?"
Sony Pictures has announced that Golden Globe-winner and BAFTA Film Award-nominee Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron; Tenet) has been cast as the titular antihero in upcoming Spider-Man spinoff Kraven the Hunter, which is now tentatively scheduled to arrive in theaters on January 13, 2023.
He's signed on for multiple films, so there is a possibility he could make his debut in a different Spider-Man or SUMC film before headlining his own standalone feature.
J.C. Chandor (
Triple Frontier;
A Most Violent Year) has been tapped to direct the long-gestating origin story, with a screenplay from Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (
Iron Man;
Uncharted) and Richard Wenk (
The Equalizer; Jack Reacher: Never Go Back).
While Keanu Reeves (John Wick; The Matrix) was rumored to be the top choice for the role earlier this year, it was later reported that he had actually passed on the part several months prior.
According to Justin Kroll of Deadline, Brad Pitt (Fight Club; Se7en), John David Washington (Tenet; BlacKkKlansman), and Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker; Marriage Story) were also considered by the studio before they saw footage of Taylor-Johnson in David Leitch's upcoming actioner Bullet Train, and they quickly moved to offer him the part.
The 30-year-old English actor is, of course, best known to comic book movie fans for his role as Pietro Maximoff in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron as well as for playing Dave Lizewski in Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2. His most prominent credits include, but are not limited to, Savages, Anna Karenina, Godzilla, Nocturnal Animals, The Wall, Outlaw King, A Million Little Pieces, and Tenet.
Before Kraven, he can be seen later this year in Matthew Vaughn's The King's Man and next year in the aforementioned Bullet Train.