Tickets for Kraven the Hunter went on sale this morning for Sony Pictures' next Marvel movie and, well, the studio doesn't appear to be pulling out too many stops for this one. So far, four posters have been released, with IMAX's effort recycling an all-too-familiar piece of imagery.
The other three are a little better and, if nothing else, Aaron Taylor-Johnson certainly looks the part. Beyond that, the expectation is that the similarities between this Kraven and his comic book counterpart will be minimal (he'll be portrayed as a bloodthirsty, gangster-hunting anti-hero rather than one of Spider-Man's greatest foes).
Sony might have accepted that Kraven the Hunter will underperform, particularly when early estimates point to a $20 million opening.
The odds are very much stacked against the movie as it will have to contend with holdovers like Wicked and Moana 2, not to mention the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King the following weekend.
Kraven the Hunter director J.C. Chandor recently shared a plea with fans to give his movie a chance after disappointments like Morbius and Madame Web.
However, even after Venom: The Last Dance proved to be the second-best reviewed instalment of that trilogy, moviegoers and comic book fans alike remain wary of "Sony's Spider-Man Universe."
"I don’t want to get too into the nitty-gritty of it, but here’s what I would say: for me as a filmmaker, my number one goal, especially, quite frankly, over the last couple of years where you guys are deep in this world...some of the fans out there, a lot of the fans, were upset with certain decisions and certain outcomes [of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe]," the filmmaker acknowledged.
"Then with other films, they’ve gone on to be tremendous successes. So there’s been there’s been a mixed success rate," Chandor continued. "People have got to give us a chance and come out and support this film, and literally try to wash away some of the other stuff that’s happened. Give our film a chance."
"I think they’ll realize that we’ve done everything we can to give them a pretty fun story. You’ll see when the movie’s over, there’s potential for a lot of things to happen. But my goal was to isolate our movie, protect it, and just tell a good damn story," he concluded.
Check out these newly released posters for Kraven the Hunter in the X posts below.
Kraven the Hunter is the action-packed, R-rated, standalone story of how one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
Directed by J.C. Chandor from a story by Richard Wenk and a screenplay by Richard Wenk and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, Kraven the Hunter is based on the Marvel Comics and produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and David Householter.
The cast is led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe.
Kraven the Hunter arrives in theaters on December 13.