With Kraven the Hunter less than two weeks away from arriving in theaters after tickets went on sale this past Friday, we'd expected Sony Pictures to release one final trailer for the Marvel Comics adaptation.
Instead, the studio has just dropped the first 8 minutes of the movie!
This is an unprecedented move, and an approach typically reserved for when a major blockbuster arrives on Digital platforms. It appears Sony wants to give fans a better idea of what to expect from Kraven's long-awaited live-action debut and there's plenty of action and blood to be found in this action-packed sneak peek.
In the preview, we follow Kraven as he's transported to prison where he violently takes out some gangsters. Aaron Taylor-Johnson clearly brushed up on his Russian for these scenes, and the Hunter effortlessly makes his escape after showing off the superpowers which make him more than human.
The extended clip ends with us learning that Kraven cleverly killed one of the prisoners and took their place, though how he knew to copy that neck tattoo isn't made clear.
Is this a desperate move on Sony's part or a clever way to sell fans on a movie they appear to have little interest in thanks to Morbius and Madame Web? That's up for debate but those opening weekend box office numbers will answer the question one way or the other (early projections are bleak, to say the least).
You can watch the first 8 minutes of Kraven the Hunter in the player 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.