Turns out Patriot wasn’t the only character Ryan Coogler considered for Black Panther.
In a perfect world, the Creed filmmaker would have allowed T’Challa to face off against Kraven the Hunter, a villain synonymous with Peter Parker and the Spider-Man universe. Alas, much like Venom, Carnage, and Gwen Stacy, Sony Pictures retains the rights to Kraven, and has done so since 1999, which meant Coogler’s plan unraveled before it could really gain any sense of momentum.
That’s something the director told Yahoo Movies (h/t CBM) while out promoting Black Panther, and admitted that licensing issues got in the way of T’Challa sharing the screen with Kraven the Hunter:
Being a Marvel fan, you want to grab all the characters. You realize there are contractual things. You don’t have that character. There was a Christopher Priest run that was pretty heavy, there’s a big scene where Panther’s fighting Kraven, Kraven the Hunter.
Coogler continued:
I’ve always loved Kraven the Hunter in almost every iteration. So there was a moment – ‘Can I grab Kraven?’ – and they were ‘Nah, you don’t have Kraven.’ He was one where I thought ‘Oh, man.’ But I don’t even know if he would have worked in the movie we ended up with, this was the early days.
It’s disappointing, of course, as any movie featuring Kraven the Hunter is one we wouldn’t want to miss. But at least based on early reviews, Black Panther turned out just fine, so perhaps it’s for the best?
Indeed, analysts predict a suitably epic four-day opening for the Wakandan king, as Black Panther is said to be targeting a domestic bow in the region of $130m-$150m. Toss in the deluge of positive reviews and it seems Marvel Studios has got another mega-hit on its hands.