Tom Holland says 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' almost featured Kraven the Hunter
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland revealed that the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home film almost featured one of Peter Parker's iconic adversaries, Kraven the Hunter.
In an interview with Collider, Holland said that his third Spider-Man outing was supposed to feature the Marvel villain, but then the film took a different path and now centers on the multiverse storyline.
"For a long time, there was going to be a Kraven movie that was going to be the third movie because things weren’t working out and all sorts of different stuff,” Holland said. “Jon pitched me this Kraven movie, which actually was really cool. I don’t want to talk about it in case that movie ends up happening down the line, but it was fun.”
Prior to this, it’s been reported that a Spider-Man spin-off movie titled Kraven the Hunter is currently in development and will star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who previously played Wanda's brother Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. The project is being directed by J.C. Chandor and is slated to premiere on Jan. 13, 2023.
Created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, the infamous villain first debuted in 1964's The Amazing Spider-Man #15. Kraven, also known as Sergie Kravinoff, is a Russian hunter who took a herbal potion that allowed him to enhance his strength, speed, and agility. Apart from gaining physical powers, the potion also enabled Kraven to decelerate his aging process.
As a supervillain, Kraven decided to hunt Spider-Man in order to restore the honor of his family name. He later joined Doc Octopus' Sinister Six, which includes Sandman, Vulture, Electro, and Mysterio, in a bid to defeat the web-crawler.
Kraven the Hunter is among the upcoming Spider-Man projects being developed by Sony.
Other spin-off movies that are already underway include Jared Leto's Morbius and the recently announced third Venom film, with Tom Hardy reprising his role as Eddie Brock.
In case you haven’t heard, Holland’s No Way Home film will feature classic villains from previous Spider-Man film series, including Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto Octavius, and Jamie Foxx as Electro.
Despite the leaked images, there’s still no confirmation if the highly-rumored return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in the upcoming Sony/Marvel Spiderverse film is really happening. But then again, it's worth mentioning that No Way Home is delving into the multiversal plotline, with infamous villains from previous Spider-Man films returning to the big screen.
As for Holland’s future in the MCU, producer Amy Pascal previously confirmed that the actor’s stint as the Web Crawler will not end in No Way Home.
"This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel—[this is not] the last Spider-Man movie," Pascal told Fandango. "We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel. We're thinking of this as three films, and now we're going to go onto the next three. This is not the last of our MCU movies."
Directed by Jon Watts and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the cast members of Spider-Man: No Way Home also include Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, and Benedict Cumberbatch, who is reprising his role as Doctor Strange.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to premiere in theaters on Dec 17 in the US and Jan. 8, 2022 in the Philippines.