Aaron Taylor-Johnson: “F*ck yeah” Kraven the Hunter gets an R rating

Aaron Taylor-Johnson answered the internet’s biggest question Monday night at CinemaCon: Will ‘Kraven the Hunter’ be rated ‘R’? “Hell yeah, it’s going to be R-rated,” he said from afar during Sony’s presentation.

That pre-recorded video set the tone for the very, very bloody first footage that Sony broadcast to upset attendees — mostly movie theater owners — at Caesar’s Palace Coliseum in Las Vegas. We’re told Sony exec Sanford Panitch said the full “Kraven” trailer will hit theaters this summer.

The teaser (let’s call it that) ended with the reveal of the film’s bad guy, the classic Spider-Man villain, the Rhino; the audience seems to dig this. (In the comics, like Rhino, Kraven is a Spider-Man villain; in his own movie, Kraven will play an anti-hero/protagonist role. Think Walter White with a big game hunting thing—you know, kind of like a rhino.)

Based on Marvel Comics, “Kraven the Hunter” is Sony’s first R-rated Marvel movie. (“Deadpool” was a Fox movie before Disney bought it.)

According to Sony’s logline, “Kraven the Hunter” will take viewers on an epic journey through which Sergey Kravinoff becomes one of Marvel’s most iconic villains. “Kraven” is directed by JC Chandor; story and screenplay by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk. The film is produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and David Householter.

In addition to Taylor-Johnson, “Kraven the Hunter” stars Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott and Russell Crowe. “Kraven the Hunter” opens in theaters on October 6, 2023.

Sony is very much into the Marvel movie business. In addition to the “Spider-Man” movies themselves and a couple of “Venom” movies (with a third already in the works), Sony also distributes “Madame Web” and “El Muerto.”

Sony has 23 theatrical releases planned for 2023, including “Love Again,” “Knights of the Zodiac,” “The Machine,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “No Hard Feelings,” “Harold and the ” Purple Crayon”, “Insidious: The Red Door”, “Gran Turismo”, “They Listen”, “Equalizer 3”, “The Book of Clarence”, “Dumb Money”, “Journey to Bethlehem”, “Thanksgiving”, “ Napoleon” and a new “Ghostbusters” sequel.

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