Sony has cast The White Lotus actor Fred Hechinger as the classic Spider-Man villain, the Chameleon, in J.C Chandor's Kraven the Hunter solo film. Former MCU and Kick-Ass star Aaron Taylor-Johnson was cast as the titular Spider-Man villain in May 2021. The film will be set in Sony's Spider-Man universe alongside the Venom series and Morbius.
Set within Sony's Spider-Man Universe, Kraven the Hunter will introduce one of Spider-Man's deadliest foes to the big screen fully for the first time. Making his debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #15 in August 1964, renowned big-game hunter Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff set his sights on the web-slinging hero to prove himself the world's greatest hunter. A founding member of the Sinister Six, Kraven is renowned for defeating and burying the hero in the acclaimed Kraven's Last Hunt storyline in 1987, where he briefly impersonated the hero before meeting his end. With Taylor-Johnson cast as Kraven, it had been rumored fellow villain the Chameleon would appear in the film, but now the character's involvement has been confirmed, along with who will play him.
Deadline reports Hechinger has joined and would star alongside Taylor-Johnson in Sony Picture's upcoming entry into their Spider-Man-inspired cinematic universe. While Hechinger's role was unconfirmed, various sources indicated that The White Lotus star would be playing the Chameleon in the Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach-produced movie. While the film will most likely have the Chameleon in a key role, Kraven the Hunter will not be the character's film debut, as the character made a brief appearance in the MCU in Spider-Man: Far From Home portrayed by Numan Acar.
While his previous theatrical appearance was just a brief cameo, the Chameleon is one of Spider-Man's oldest foes, debuting in the initial issue of The Amazing Spider-Man in March 1963 as a master-of-disguise. His true identity is Dmitri Smerdyakov, the half-brother of Kraven in the comics, with his defeat at the hands of Spider-Man inspiring the big-game-hunter to target the hero. While he is more commonly associated with Spider-Man, Chameleon has faced other notable heroes in the Marvel universe, such as Daredevil, Hank Pym, and more recently disguising himself as Tony Stark while working with Doctor Octopus during the Devils' Reign storyline.
While Hechinger will join Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe for Kraven the Hunter, there are still many questions around the next Sony-produced Spider-Man solo villain project. While films such as Venom and Morbius have opted to adapt the characters without the involvement of Spider-Man, Kraven may prove more difficult to omit the hero from, due to him being Kraven's greatest target. With Spider-Man: No Way Home teasing the villain through its multiversal plot and the renewed interest in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men, fans hope that one of these actors could become the version of the hero at the center of Sony's Spider-Man Universe. For now, Hechinger's casting implies that Kraven the Hunter will retain the villain's comic family tree.
Source: Deadline
