Who does Russell Crowe play in Kraven the Hunter?

Ahead of its October 2023 premiere, Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe, got its first red-band trailer recently. As is expected from such videos, it has a lot of gore and blood-laced sequences. Starring Taylor-Johnson in the titular character aka Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven the Hunter has been helmed by J. C. Chandor.

This is Taylor-Johnson’s third tryst as a superhero/villain character after playing the protagonist in the homonymous 2010 black comedy Kick-A*s and its 2013 sequel, and Pietro Maximoff in MCU’s Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

To note, Kraven the Hunter is also Russell Crowe’s second Marvel film as a different character. In the upcoming flick, he is portraying the crucial character of Kraven’s father, Nikolai Kravinoff. The Academy Award winner has earlier played Zeus in the 2022 superhero film, Thor: Love and Thunder.

Though not confirmed, he may return as the fictional deity in forthcoming MCU films. Meanwhile, his role as Nikolai Kravinoff is reportedly considered to be quite important to the entire plot of Kraven the Hunter. Through multiple frames in the 3:09-minute-long run, the characterization of Russell Crowe’s Nikolai Kravinoff gets laid in front of us, helping us realize that he's anything but a good character in the upcoming film.

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Russell Crowe's Nikolai Kravinoff is a shady character in Kraven the Hunter

As per Marvel.fandom.com, Grand Duke Nikolai Kravinoff was a native of St. Petersburg. He was also a court member of Tsar Nicholas II (Russia’s last Emperor) in the comics. After the kingdom fell, Nikolai relocated with his family and bought an estate in upstate New York.

He's originally from Earth-616 and holds Russian citizenship, added the portal. Created by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck, the character operates from Kravinoff Estate in New York. His first appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #294, published in August 1987.

Russell Crowe in Kraven the Hunter. (Photo via YouTube/Sony Pictures Entertainment/Sportskeeda)

As for his involvement in Kraven's life, Nikolai raised him alongside his illegitimate son, Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka Chameleon. It’s stated that the aristocrat immensely tormented Kraven, which he avenged by torturing Dmitri. Nikolai-Kraven's contentious relationship was shown pretty clearly in the new trailer for Kraven the Hunter.

Apart from Kraven’s beastly attitude, the character’s mostly hate-less love relationship with Russell Crowe’s calculative and heartless Nikolai is probably another highlight of the promotional clip. Considered Spider-Man’s topmost adversary, Kraven was called “weak like his mother” by his father when he could not shoot a lion.

After getting bitten by the animal, Sergei Kravinoff becomes the formidable Kraven the Hunter, but the trailer indicates that he always had a grudge towards his father for not helping him when he was being mauled by the lion.

So when Nikolai tries to threaten him at the end of the clip, Kravin menacingly says:

“You don’t get to do that to me anymore.”

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the Kiwi star joined the team in February 2022, without revealing his role. But when an actor of his stature gets signed, it surely is for a very meaty part. For now, Russell Crowe is busy directing himself, Liam Hemsworth, and RZA for Poker Face.

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Kraven the Hunter's official synopsis reads as:

"Russian immigrant Sergei Kravinoff is on a mission to prove that he is the greatest hunter in the world."

The upcoming movie is set to hit theaters on October 6, 2023, across the US.