"Kraven the Hunter" to Be Sony's First R-Rated Marvel Movie

English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who plays the title role in Kraven the Hunter, announced in a pre-taped greeting to CinemaCon 2023 that it will be Sony’s first R-rated Marvel movie. 

Sony presented a roughly two-minute teaser from the movie exclusively for CinemaCon attendees, meaning it won’t be released online. 

The footage has tons of gruesome kills in it as Kraven takes out poachers and mercs, think Logan, Rambo, or John Wick-levels of bloody violence. It also showed Russell Crowe as the Russian father of Taylor-johnson’s Sergei Kravinoff (he speaks in an American accent). 

The footage ended with introducing Alessandro Nivola playing the Rhino. The skin on his arm starts to transform into rhino skin. There's also a very brief shot of Sergei holding up the classic fur costume Kraven wore in the Marvel comics.

Whether Kraven the movie will, like Morbius, be connected to Sony’s Spider-Man franchise remains to be seen.

"Kraven the Hunter" debuted in Marvel Comics’ Amazing Spider-Man #15. He considered himself the greatest hunter in the world and deemed the wall crawler the ultimate prey to catch. 

Taylor-Johnson previously said he liked playing Kraven because he’s "not an alien or a wizard. He's just a hunter, a human with conviction. An animal lover and a protector of the natural world."

The actor also called Kraven "one of Marvel's most iconic, notorious anti-heroes" and "Spider-Man's number one rival."

"Kraven the Hunter" also features Ariana DeBose as Calypso and Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Smerdyakov/ Chameleon, a master of disguise who also just so happens to be Kraven's half-brother in the comics. Christopher Abbott and Levi Miller also star.

J.C. Chandor directs the pic from a screenplay by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk.

"Kraven the Hunter" is scheduled to open in cinemas on October 6.