Spider-Man: No Way Home Originally Featured Another Major Villain

By Klein Felt Posted:
Spider-Man No Way Home Tobey Maguire Andrew Garfield

The Multiverse is about to blow wide open in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The upcoming MCU Spidey threequel will tear apart the very fabrics of reality and reintroduce audiences to villains (and potentially heroes) from past Spider-Man movies. Since these antagonists were first teased more than a year ago fans have been fervent with anticipation. 

Now that the Multiverse is at play in the MCU, anything seems possible. What seemed like a totally separate Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSMU) that houses Spidey-adjacent characters like Venom, Morbius, and now Kraven the Hunter, now could potentially tie into the greater MCU

While Tom Holland's web-slinger did show up briefly in the post-credit stinger from Venom: Let There Be Carnagea full-on crossover has yet to happen, but there could be something coming in the next wave of Holland-led Spider-Man movies.

Well, it turns out that the No Way Home filmmakers have been keeping tabs on these SSMU characters for some time. 

Kraven Could Have Appeared in No Way Home

Kraven Hunter
Marvel

In a recent interview with Collider, Spider-Man: No Way Home star Tom Holland revealed that director Jon Watts had originally pitched Kraven the Hunter as a villain in the third MCU Spidey movie.

This idea came at a time when "things weren’t working out" between Marvel and Sony, and it was uncertain if Holland's Spider-Man was going to remain in the MCU. It would have been a third Spidey movie separate from the established Marvel Studios universe exclusively under the watch of Sony.

The young actor said that Watts' Kraven pitch was "really cool," but did not want to go into specifics in case "that movie ends up happening down the line:"

"For a long time, there was going to be a Kraven movie that was going to be the third movie because things weren’t working out and all sorts of different stuff. Jon pitched me this Kraven movie, which actually was really cool. I don’t want to talk about it in case that movie ends up happening down the line, but it was fun."

Spider-Man 3's Kraven - Gone but not Forgotten

While Kraven the Hunter is one of those Spider-Man villains that is just made for the cinematic world, sadly, fans will have to wait to see their theatrical Kraven's Last Hunt dreams come true.

It is still unclear what Sony and Marvel plan on doing with their ever-expanding stable of Spider-Man villain stand-alone films. But with that Tom Holland tease at the end of Venom 2, it only seems like a matter of time before the young hero crosses over with some of these big bads. That means with the Kraven movie on the books and a cast coming together, it might not be all that long before the young wall-crawler comes face to face with Marvel's big game hunter. 

Will this eventual meeting incorporate any elements from this pitch that Holland mentions above? That remains unclear, but a Kraven vs Spidey story is one of those ready-made comic book movie stories that is just sitting there waiting. 

Many find it hard to believe that Kraven could carry a movie of his own where he is the protagonist, and they may be right; however, Kraven the Hunter as the villain in a film squaring off with Spidey could be something special.

Some of the best Spider-Man stories on the comic page have included Kraven, so it feels like a natural fit that it would work in a movie theater as well.

For fans looking to get their wall-crawling fix Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17.

- In This Article: Spider-Man: No Way Home
Release Date
December 17, 2021
Platform
Theaters
- About The Author: Klein Felt
Klein Felt is a Senior Editor at The Direct. Joining the website back in 2020, he helped jumpstart video game content on The Direct. Klein plays a vital role as a part of the site's content team, demonstrating expertise in all things PlayStation, Marvel, and the greater entertainment industry.