While appearing at CineEurope to promote other projects, Taylor-Johnson also spoke about her experience on “Kraven the Hunter” so far. According to Variety, the actor says it’s been interesting playing “Spider-Man’s number one rival” because the notorious big-game hunter “isn’t an alien or a wizard. He’s just a hunter, a human with conviction.” That sound good. Although, in addition, Taylor-Johnson says that Kraven is also “an animal lover and a protector of the natural world.”
Hope for?
In the comics, Sergei Kravinoff leaves his homeland of Russia to become the world’s greatest hunter. To do so, he targets Spider-Man because he believes that defeating the hero will grant him that title. But when it comes to hunting more conventional prey, he has a code of honor that dictates a fair and honorable hunt that usually only involves his bare hands. Clearly he has respect for the creatures (and creature-themed people) he hunts to some degree because of this code, but I’d hardly say that qualifies him as an “animal lover” and “protector of the natural world.” “It’s more of a ‘let’s kill the biggest, baddest animals in the world and use their heads and skins as trophies and clothing’ kind of thing.”
I mean, there’s a chance the lion head vest he’s wearing is fake, but it’s not likely.
Considering that nothing will turn the audience against any character faster than seeing them kill animals for sport (no matter how honorable), Sony clearly had to take some liberties with “Kraven the Hunter” if they decided to go ahead with the project. . But making him “an animal lover” and “a protector of the natural world” is such a drastic departure from who Kraven is as a character.