We've been hearing a lot of casting news regarding Sony's Kraven the Hunter lately as it is set to begin production soon whether it's an Oscar-winning actor as the titular character's father or the breakout star of West Side Story as Calypso. Now, it looks like they have finally cast an actor who will play the main villain of the film.
Deadline has reported that Catch-22 and Girls star Christopher Abbott has been cast to play The Foreigner in Kraven the Hunter. He is joining an ensemble that already includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Ariana DeBose, and Alessandro Nivola. J.C. Chandor will direct the film with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach serving as producers. Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk are writing the screenplay.
In case you're not familiar with The Foreigner, he is one of the bigger adversaries of Spider-Man in the comics who is a mercenary and assassin and married to Silver Sable. While he has no supernatural abilities, he is a trained martial artist and one of the best in the Marvel Universe. However, it is likely that they will do some changes to The Foreigner's backstory or characteristics in the film although we can assume that they will retain the character's expertise in martial arts.
Abbott's casting comes after his acclaimed performances in films such as Black Bear, Possessor, Vox Lux, and First Man. He received a Golden Globe nomination for starring in the Hulu limited series Catch-22 where he co-starred with George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. He also had a recurring role in the HBO series Girls and starred in the first season of The Sinner along with Jessica Biel. He made his breakthrough when he starred in the independent film James White where he received numerous accolades.
While it was reported that Nivola was going to play the villain in this film as well, it looks like Abbott is going to be the actual main villain since he will be playing The Foreigner. It will be interesting to see them take this direction since we've known both Kraven and The Foreigner as adversaries of Spider-Man in the comics. As for Abbott's casting, he has proven that he is a great actor, but we really haven't seen him take an action-packed role so it's going to be his time to shine to showcase his skills in doing action scenes.
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Kraven the Hunter is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on January 13, 2023.
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