Director J.C. Chandor was first announced to be helming Sony’s Kraven the Hunter in the summer of 2020, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson confirmed for the title role in in May 2021, but things went awfully quiet on the Spider-Man spinoff for a long time, until a recent flurry of casting news locked the principal cast into place in a matter of weeks.
Russell Crowe was the first member of the supporting ensemble to be added at the beginning of last month, and the Academy Award winner was swiftly joined by The White Lotus‘ Fred Hechinger as Chameleon, while West Side Story breakout and recent Oscar nominee Ariana DeBose was signed as Calypso.
At long last, Kraven the Hunter has finally found its big bad, with Deadline naming Alessandro Nivola as the superhero blockbuster’s primary antagonist. There’s no word yet on who he’s playing, but with the January 2023 release date only ten months away and production beginning imminently, it won’t be too long until we find out.
Nivola has been a regular presence on our screens dating back decades, proving himself to be a hugely versatile talent capable of disappearing into any number of roles in the process, so his presence as the villain of Kraven the Hunter doesn’t narrow things down at all, although you can bet fans will already be speculating heavily.