Beware, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” another R-rated Marvel movie is coming for your box office crown. With Dr. Michael Morbius and Cassandra Webb failing to become household names, Eddie Brock preparing to retire, and the rumored “Spider-Man 4” starring Tom Holland still out in the wind, it’s up to Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Sergei Kravinoff to salvage the future of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. (R.I.P. SPUMC, we hardly knew ye.) The actor’s “Kraven the Hunter” film has gone through multiple release date changes, the most recent of which saw it pushed to mid-December — because I dunno about you, but when I think of the winter holidays, I think of the guy from “Kick-Ass” biting off people’s noses and spitting them out, as Taylor-Johnson does in the first “Kraven” trailer.
In case the actor’s face-chomping antics didn’t clue you off, “Kraven” has now been officially rated R for “strong bloody violence, and language,” and will continue this year’s trend of R-rated comic book films after “Deadpool & Wolverine” and the incoming “Joker: Folie à Deux.” (And yet, for some reason, it appears this fall’s “Venom: The Last Dance” will not have an R-rated sex scene between Eddie and Venom. How come, Chief Willoughby?) The movie itself hales from “A Most Violent Year” and “Triple Frontier” director J.C. Chandor, with “The Equalizer” writer Richard Wenk sharing screenplay credit with “Uncharted” scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. The WGA has also awarded credits for “Additional Literary Material: (not on-screen)” to Chandor and six other writers entirely, which is, um, certainly a lot.
On a more encouraging note: Deadline has asserted the film’s most recent delay allowed Chandor “to sharpen the characters and tighten the plot,” and perform some reshoots that were “effective.” Check out the new “Kraven” trailer above and see how you think it’s shaping up.