The 10 biggest spoilers for Kraven the Hunter

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Kraven the Hunterfrom Sony Kraven the Hunter adapts one of Spider-Man's most famous enemies with some twists and surprises, while Sony's Spider-Man Universe makes some changes to the Marvel villain's lore and introduces some other comic book characters. Kraven the Hunter marks the end of an era for Sony's Spider-Man universe films, delivering one last villain-centric film before Sony cancels several similar projects. While Kraven the Hunter it doesn't reference or connect to any of the live-action Spider-Men introduced thus far, but takes inspiration from comics from Kraven's early days as “The Hunter.”

In the same way as Sony Poison trilogy and Morbius, Kraven the Hunter portrays its titular hero as an anti-hero rather than a full-blown villain. Although ruthless in his hunting methods and criminal by nature, Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Sergei Kravinoff is less evil than most of the main characters in Kraven the HunterIt's cast. And also like Venom, Morbius and Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter only learns to embrace his power and responsibility at the end of his first solo film, earning both his comic costume and his official status as a well-known antihero in the film. Sony. Spider-Man Universe.

10

Kraven's abilities are enhanced by a legendary lion and Calypso's elixir

Kraven the Hunter gains superhuman abilities, unlike his comic book counterpart

from Sony Kraven the Hunter makes a big change to its titular character's origin story. In the film, young Sergei Kravinoff and his brother Dmitri accompany their father Nikolai on his quest to hunt a legendary lion, the “Tsar”. According to a legend, whoever hunts this unkillable lion will become a legend himself. Sergei accidentally encounters the animal and exchanges peaceful glances with it, but a shot from Nikolai scares it and causes it to attack the child. A dying Sergei is then saved by a teenager named Calypso, who felt a calling to save Sergei with an elixir he received from his grandmother..

Kraven the HunterYoung Sergei Kravinoff dies for a few minutes and comes back healthier and stronger than before. After his experience with the lion, Sergei develops super strength, super speed, enhanced senses, and a general amplification of all his natural abilities. This is a big difference from Marvel Comics' Kraven the Hunter, who gets his superhuman directly from Calypso's elixirs. In the source material, Kraven the Hunter is a master assassin with a penchant for increasingly difficult prey, which is why he develops a deadly obsession with Spider-Man.

9

Kraven becomes “the hunter” to eliminate criminals like his father

The hunter is an urban legend feared by the most dangerous killers

Shortly after his near-death experience with the legendary lion, Sergei Kravinoff chooses to leave his father and brother behind to become an assassin. Sergei calls himself “Kraven” and gains fame as “The Hunter” – a stealthy, criminal-hunting figure who may or may not be real. As powerful bosses fall one by one, the surviving crime lords agree that “when you're on his listyou never leave”. As seen in Kraven the HunterIn Kraven's opening cutscene, Kraven uses his enhanced speed and agility to kill his targets and escape unharmed. Later in the film, Kraven reveals to his father that he was always on the list, but put off the assassination so he could kill everyone else. criminal first. Nikolai's refusal to pay the ransom for Dmitri's freedom seals the deal for Kraven, who loses all respect for his father. However, Kraven first focuses on freeing his brother and defeating Aleksei before punishing his father. Kraven never considered himself his father's successor, but accepted his role as an assassin to kill other criminals.

8

Aleksei Sytsevich hires the alien to kill Kraven and get revenge on Nikolai Kravinoff

Aleksei Sytsevich's Hitman is more powerful than him, but dies due to his arrogance

Aleksei Sytsevich accompanies Nikolai Kravinoff and his sons on their mission to hunt the Tsar's lion. At some point during the trip, Nikolai is offended by Aleksei's friendliness due to his illness, which makes Aleksei seem weak to Nikolai – and there is nothing more insulting to Nikolai than weakness, both physical and psychological. Nikolai humiliates Aleksei, and Aleksei swears revenge on Nikolai and his family in return. Years later, Aleksei Sytsevich is a powerful crime lord and hires an assassin nicknamed “the Foreigner” to kill the Hunter before the Hunter kills him..

The Stranger has psionic abilities that allow him to freeze the perception of time in the minds of his enemies, making them completely defenseless and amnesiac for a few seconds. Kraven the Hunter it doesn't explain exactly how the Stranger's powers work or how he acquired them. Other characters develop animal-themed superhuman abilities—some through mystical means and others through scientific experiments—but the Stranger's powers appear to be entirely psychic. However, the Alien's abilities are very faithful to the comics, but the countdown for his “time freeze” has been reduced from ten seconds to three.

7

Kraven almost dies in the same way his father may have killed his mother

The alien's assassination attempt on Kraven suggests that Nikolai killed Sergei's mother in the same way

Kraven uses tranquilizer darts to infiltrate the lair of one of his targets. The Stranger tracks him down, discovers the darts, and realizes that their main ingredient is incredibly powerful in higher doses. The Stranger informs Aleksei Sytsevic of his discovery, and they agree to kill Kraven once and for all. Aleksei and the Stranger corner Kraven on his mother's farm, and the Alien shoots Kraven with several darts, each filled with deadly doses of the rare ingredientwhich causes hallucinations just before death. Kraven begins hallucinating spiders before Calypso arrives to cure him with the same elixir she used to resurrect him when the lion attacked him.

Kraven's hallucinations resemble the hallucinations his late mother suffered before taking her life when Kraven was a child. Nikolai constantly reminded his children that their mother had an irremediable psychological condition that made her “weak”and advised Sergei and Dmitri not to regret their mother's death due to this supposed weakness. Considering that the rare plant that causes Kraven's hallucinations grows on the Kravinoffs' property, it appears that Nikolai injected the substance into Kraven's mother to justify his death.

6

Calypso kills the alien and saves Kraven's life

Calypso's elixir and archery skills save Kraven at the last possible moment

Kraven's enhanced abilities are no match for the Foreigner's psychic powers and his weaponized plant. The Foreigner avoids all of the Hunter's attacks and injects him with several lethal doses of the psychedelic substance. Then, the villain pulls out his gun and prepares to shoot Kraven. HoweverCalypso arrives just in time to shoot an arrow into the Stranger's eye.killing him instantly. Calypso then uses some of her limited supply of healing elixir to negate the effects of the psychedelic substance and save Kraven from a painful death.

In the comics, Calypso is a cruel enemy of Spider-Man with a deep knowledge of dark magic. She is able to transfer her soul into other bodies and control the minds of individuals as powerful as Curt Connors, also known as The Lizard. Calypso's mystical abilities slowly corrupt Kraven's mind and may have played a role in his decision to take his life in the 2006 storyline. Kraven's Last Hunt. However, Ariana Debose's Calypso is nowhere near as villainous as her comic book counterpart.

5

Miles Warren is creating animal-themed villains in New York

Kraven the Hunter's animal-themed supervillains gain their powers from Miles Warren's experiments

Inspired by Nikolai Kravinoff's insults, Aleksei Sytsevich found a solution to his physical illness in New York. According to Aleksei, a scientist named Miles Warren used an experimental treatment on him that grants him more stamina and strength, but requires him to keep side effects under control with a feeding tube that pumps a special liquid into his body. The side effects of Aleksei Sytsevish's treatment, of course, are his transformation into a corpulent creature with impenetrable skin that resembles a rhinoceros – an appearance that earned him the nickname “The Rhinoceros”.

Miles Warren never appears on screen in Kraven the Hunterbut he is responsible for Aleksei Sytsevich's transformation into the Rhino, as well as Dmitri Kravinoff's eventual transformation into the Chameleon. In the comics, Miles Warren, aka Jackal, is the evil scientist behind the creation of Spider-Man's many clones and the spread of the Spider-Virus across Manhattan. Kraven the Hunter 2 It may not happen, but a Kraven the Hunter the sequel could have Miles Warren as its main antagonist and new animal-themed villains such as Lizard, Worms, Scorpion and Stegron as secondary antagonists.

4

Kraven kills Alexei Sytsevich in his rhino form

Kraven the hunter finds a vulnerability in the rhino's impenetrable skin

After killing the Foreigner, Kraven intercepts Aleksei Sytsevich's convoy and leads a stampede of animals to overturn Aleksei's car. Aleksei removes the feeding tube from his stomach and his body immediately begins to transform. Alekesi jumps out of his car in his full Rhino form, and Kraven struggles to land a single hit on him. due to his impenetrable skin and superhuman strength. Beaten to death, Kraven stabs the Rhino through the hole in his stomach, causing the villain to bleed profusely.

Kraven also ties the Rhino to some of the wild animals in the surrounding stampede, dragging him several meters. Rhino falls to the ground and loses part of its animal qualities before exhaling its last breath. It is not known whether Kraven the HunterRhino is definitely dead, as the villain is incredibly difficult to kill in the source material, and he could have been a recurring antagonist in Sony's Spider-Man universe.

3

Kraven kills his father indirectly with the help of a bear

Kraven completes his list by letting his father die a horrible death

After killing the Alien and the Rhino, the last crime lord left to kill is Nikolai Kravinoff, Kraven's own father. Kraven pursues his father just as Nikolai taught him to pursue his prey, and the two men sit down to talk about their past. Kraven warns Nikolai that he will not follow in his father's footsteps, even though he is undeniably a murderer.accepts a drink from Nikolai and leaves. As Kraven walks away, Nikolai notices that a wild animal is approaching him and realizes that he does not have enough ammunition to defend himself. Kraven smiles and throws away the ammunition he took from Nikolai's shotguns.

The perfect timing and behavior of the stampede that helps Kraven defeat the Rhino and the bear that attacks Nikolai suggests that Kraven not only developed enhanced abilities from his encounter with the lion and his subsequent resurrection, but also gained mystical communication with all of wildlife. After Kraven the HunterBy the end of, Sergei Kravinoff may be able to turn this communication into an even more effective weapon. Kraven does not have this ability in the source material.

2

Dmitri Kravinoff becomes the chameleon and takes control of his father's criminal empire

Dmitri Kravinoff uses Miles Warren's experiments to become as powerful as his brother Kraven

After many years of psychological abuse by his father and the painful experience of being left to die with his captors, Dmitri Kravinoff decides to leave behind his supposed weakness and seek the same kind of power that made his brother an urban legend. Dmitri is on good terms with Sergei at the end of Kraven the Hunterbut he has already taken advantage of Nikolai's connections to delve deep into his father's criminal dealings. Dmitri also reveals his new abilities to Kraven when he transforms his face to resemble his brother's, like a chameleon..

Dmitri Kravinoff's “Chameleon” appearance is a perfectly comical recreation of the villain's classic comic appearance. In the comics, Dmitri Smerdyakov adopts the Chameleon identity to fight Spider-Man using his impersonation abilities, sometimes alone and sometimes alongside his brother Kraven. Dmitri has successfully impersonated important Marvel figures such as Steve Rogers and Spider-Man himself, and has earned his place as one of Spider-Man's most recurring enemies.

1

Kraven inherits his original comic book costume from Nikolai Kravinoff

Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven the Hunter wears just his lion skin jacket in one scene

After Nikolai Kravinoff's death, Kraven returns to his father's mansion and realizes that the lion that gave him his powers, whose corpse Nikolai turned into a trophy, has disappeared. Kraven then finds a note from his father saying that he will not be able to escape his destiny: to remain a deadly hunter like his father. As a final gift, Nikolai leaves Kraven a jacket made from the skin and fur of the legendary lion. Kraven puts it on and sees himself in the mirror, recreating his iconic sitting pose from the comics.

Surprisingly, the Kraven the Hunter Scenes with Aaron Taylor-Johnson's antihero running and fighting while wearing his comic costume are not in the film. Kraven the HunterThe final scene of Kraven begins his hunting missions while wearing the lion's jacket, but doesn't follow that tease with a post-credits scene or any extra visual tease of any kind. So the only other way to see Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven wearing his comic book costume in motion is to watch Kraven the Huntertrailers.

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