Sony’s version of Kraven the Hunter is “an animal lover” and “protector”

Fresh off the embarrassing bomb that was Morbius, Sony is on the lookout for its next failure. They may find it in Kraven the Hunter, a movie about the Spider-Man villain of the same name.

Both Morbius and Kraven are coming in at a disadvantage: they’re movies about Spider-Man villains that can’t actually use Spider-Man, or if they can, they haven’t. Venom may be a big enough name to stand on his own, but if you want people to see a movie about a little-known comic book villain like Kraven the Hunter, you better make it great.

And maybe they will, but early word from star Aaron Taylor-Johnson doesn’t have people encouraged. Speaking to Variety, the actor described Kraven as “[a]n animal lover and a protector of the natural world.”

Can Kraven the Hunter love animals while also killing them for sport?

Now, on the surface that sounds fine, but some fans are taking objection given that Kraven is literally…well, a hunter. A big-game hunter, to be specific, who’s most famous look is him wearing a skinned lion. How much of an animal lover can you really be if you hunt and kill them for fun, y’know?

Naturally, the internet is having some fun with this. “[T]here’s literally a reason why his name is Kraven the HUNTER why the fuck are you turning him into Kraven the PETA member,” wrote @odinsfade. “Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s ‘KRAVEN THE HUNTER’ will be an animal lover and vegan,” wrote @ComicGirlAshley. “The change was made to ‘address an important problem in the world.’ Instead Kraven will be hunting the British.”

Of course, this was just an off-hand comment made by Taylor-Johnson in a wide-ranging interview; we may not need to read this much into it…that said, Sony is in a tricky position with these Spider-Man villain movies. Again, they can’t or won’t use Spider-Man, so each movie has to make a hero out of its villain, and heroes aren’t supposed to do things like engage in big-game hunting, which is widely seen today as abusive and gross. So Venom, Morbius and Kraven are bad, sure, but Sony doesn’t want them to come off as that bad. How are you supposed to sell a Funko Pop of an animal abuser?

Now, the easy solution to all of this is to just not make these movies…but Sony seems bound and determined to carry on. Does that mean that Kraven will be some kind of animal conservationist now? We’ll find out when Kraven the Hunter comes out on January 13, 2023.

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h/t Polygon