'Kraven the Hunter' snares Ariana DeBose and big bad Alessandro Nivola

Kraven the Hunter, Sony’s upcoming film focusing on one of Marvel’s most popular anti-heroes, has got an ever-expanding cast. Deadline has reported that both Ariana DeBose and Alessandro Nivola have joined the film, joining the already-announced Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who will play the titular Kraven, as well as Russell Crowe in an unknown major role, and Fred Hechinger as Kraven’s half-brother, Chameleon. 

DeBose, who is nominated at this year's Academy Awards for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for West Side Story, is set to play Calypso. In the comics, Calypso is a psychopathic voodoo priestess who dabbles in necromancy. She is one of Spider-Man’s nemeses and also has a complicated, antagonistic, and sometimes romantic relationship with Kraven. 

Nivola comes to Kraven the Hunter after playing Dickie Moltisanti in The Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark. We don’t have details on Nivola’s role in the film other than that he will play the major villain. There are a lot of possibilities here, assuming this means that he’ll be a villain of Kraven’s (a title that Spider-Man also holds). Vermin, perhaps? It’d be something to see Nivola VFX-ed up as a humanoid rat!

This is all pure speculation, but one role that might work as “the main villain” in the movie is Arcade, an evil genius who likes to kill people in elaborate, one could say overly-complicated, traps. In the three-part comic run, Claws, Arcade creates a robot version of Kraven the Hunter to go after Wolverine and Black Cat. Perhaps the Sony film will pull some of this story into upcoming movie. Or perhaps not. 

We’ll find out either way when Kraven the Hunter premieres in theaters on Jan. 13, 2023.