Kraven the Hunter is an animal-loving antihero and ‘Spider-Man’s No. 1 rival’

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has an update for fans of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. The actor, who stars as Kraven the Hunter in Sony’s upcoming movie, revealed more information about the film at the CineEurope conference, Variety reports.

Taylor-Johnson describes Kraven as “one of Marvel’s most iconic, notorious anti-heroes — Spider Man’s number one rival,” a character he found particularly interesting because he doesn’t have any super powers.

“He’s just a hunter, a human with conviction. An animal lover and a protector of the natural world. He’s a very, very cool character,” said Taylor-Johnson. (For the record, in Marvel comics, Kraven does have some superhuman abilities from an herbal concoction he consumes, but word’s out on whether the movie keeps this touch). Additionally, he revealed that, unlike many Marvel movies, this one was shot entirely on location.

Now to be clear, Kraven the Hunter is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Instead, the film belongs to the same world as Venom and Morbius — a collection of Spider-Man-related Marvel characters that Sony has the rights for. Alongside Taylor-Johnson, Kraven the Hunter will star West Side Story’s Ariana DeBose as Calypso, a voodoo priestess and Kraven’s love interest.

Kraven the Hunter is set to hit theaters on Jan. 13, 2023.