Hechinger has recently gained a lot of traction lately, especially as a breakout character in HBO’s black comedy The White Lotus. Other hit projects of his include Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy and Hulu’s bio-drama Pam & Tommy. And since Chameleon is a master of disguises, able to impersonate anybody, this will prove a meaty role for the young actor, and he should get a wide variety of scenes to prove his talents in the Spider-Man spin-off.
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While Deadline sources say Hechinger is playing Chameleon, the outlet notes that this has not been officially confirmed. Aaron Taylor-Johnson was cast as Kraven, making this his third role in a Marvel movie, previously playing Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron and the lead role in Kick-Ass. Kraven is an iconic Spider-Man villain, often seen as one of the Sinister Six. He is portrayed as the world’s greatest hunter and has devised a potion from jungle herbs, giving him superhuman abilities. Because of this, both he and Chameleon add to the motif of Spider-Man villains being based off animals.
Kraven the Hunter marks the latest entry in Sony’s growing universe of Spider-Man adjacent properties, following the two Venom films and the upcoming Morbius. All of these films involve villains in the role of antiheroes, offering a very different tone from the MCU. A cynical read of this project is Sony stretching out the Spider-Man rights for all their worth and milking an already overexposed property. And while that’s not wrong, if the Venom films are anything to go by, audiences have so far taken kindly to the franchise.
What has Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (or SSU) gotten right so far? While the Venom movies aren’t necessarily a critical success, they quickly found an audience due to their edgy visuals and campy sense of humor. And the trailers for Morbius have also received a lot of attention. To give Sony credit, they to be throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. And with the increasingly monolithic nature of superhero movies, any bit of competition is welcome. The more options there are, the better the choices will be for the viewers.
Will the SSU become a proper alternative for superhero fans? Or will this turn out an aborted experiment like the Amazing Spider-Man universe? Fans can only tell when more of these films release in the coming year.
Kraven the Hunter is scheduled to be released in theaters on January 13th, 2023.
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Source: Deadline
