The Hunter Kraven’s ending explained

Kraven the Hunter is about taking an iconic Spider-Man villain and recasting him as a more likable anti-hero. Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Sergei Kravinoff is a cold-blooded killer, but his wrath is reserved for illegal big game hunters, drug lords and anyone else who threatens nature. That mission becomes personal when Kraven’s half-brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) is kidnapped by Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), a man bent on overthrowing Kraven’s crime boss, Nikolai (Russell Crowe), and proving to be the most powerful figure in the criminals. the underworld.

The film culminates in a major showdown between Kraven and Aleksei in Siberia, where Kraven makes mincemeat of Aleksei’s idiots, only to encounter the superhuman assassin known as The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott). The alien poisons Kraven with a rare toxin that causes hallucinations, paralysis and a painful death. Kraven hallucinates dozens of spiders, foreshadowing his eventual rivalry with Spider-Man. But for the second time in his life, he is saved by Calypso (Ariana DeBose), who kills The Foreigner and administers more of her life-saving potion.

Kraven then takes on Aleksei directly and quickly learns why his enemy is nicknamed “The Rhino”. Thanks to the genetic engineering efforts of a man named Miles Warren (more on him later), Aleksei can transform into a literal human rhinoceros with super strength and durable armor. In the end, though, Kraven manages to kill his stronger opponent through a combination of common sense and relying on the animal kingdom for help. He’s practically Aquaman with the way he can convince animals to do his bidding in this movie.

Before he dies, Aleksei makes Kraven see the truth behind Dmitri’s kidnapping. It was all orchestrated by Nikolai. Kraven pays his father one last visit on his hunting trip in Russia. Nikolai reveals that he manipulated Kraven into conflict with Aleksei because he knew his son would ultimately prevail and destroy a powerful rival. As distant as they have become, Nikolai respects his son’s superior strength. That doesn’t stop Kraven from summoning a ravenous bear to devour his father.

In the end, Kraven succeeds in rescuing Dmitri and punishing those responsible for threatening his family. However, it is a bittersweet ending at best. Reunited with Dmitri a year later, Kraven discovers that his brother has taken over their late father’s criminal empire and has become exactly the kind of man he despises. What’s more, Dmitri has also turned to Miles Warren for a little genetic enhancement. Already gifted with an uncanny ability to mimic voices, Dmitiri is now a shapeshifter who can impersonate anyone. His nickname “The Chameleon” is more appropriate than ever. And should Kraven choose to add Dmitri’s name to his list of prey, he may find it difficult to track down a man who can look like anyone.

With no family left, Kraven returns to the family manor to find that Nikolai left him a parting gift. The lion head once mounted on the wall has been transformed into a ceremonial vest. Kraven puts on the vest, sits on his throne, and prepares to prove himself as the world’s greatest hunter.

Does Kraven the hunter have a post-credits scene?

Kraven the Hunter has no mid- or post-credits scenes, making it a bit of an outlier in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Every other of these films except for Madame Web has had some sort of post-credits scene. These scenes always set up future conflicts, whether or not they were Morbius teases an alliance between Jared Leto’s Morbius and Michael Keaton’s Vulture or Venom: Let There Be Carnage tees up a brief MCU crossover.

But as previously mentioned, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is reportedly dead now. The studio probably decided there was no point in leaving fans with a post-credits that wouldn’t be followed up. It’s bad enough fans were left with a tease for Knull in Venom: The Last Dance it won’t go anywhere now.

It’s enough to wonder if a post-credits scene was planned at some point, though. With the film alluding to Professor Miles Warren several times, perhaps Warren could have been revealed in the flesh. Warren is better known in the comics as The Jackal, a mad scientist who transforms himself into a human jackal. He is best known for creating clones of Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy and others and paved the way for the infamous Clone Saga crossover in the 90s.

Another possibility is that we could have seen Morbius and Vulture reappear to recruit Kraven to their growing supervillain team. It certainly feels like Sony was trying to build towards its own Sinister Six, even if Spider-Man himself remains largely MIA in this universe.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. There is no post-credits scene in Kraven the Hunter, and the film is said to be the last entry in the SSU.

Is there a future for Sony’s Spider-Man universe?

The hunter Kraven loosely sets up future conflicts in the SSU. The film is actually an origin story for Kraven himself, laying the groundwork for who he is and what motivates him to eventually begin his feud with Spider-Man. For most of the film, Kraven views himself as a heroic, even noble figure, much in opposition to his self-centered father. But in the end, most of that heroism is stripped away. We see that Kraven is just as arrogant as Nikolai. And with no real family left, Kraven has nothing but his own growing legend to fall back on.

Kraven is convinced that he is the world’s greatest hunter and that there is no true rival. As in the comics, the Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 video game, and other Spider-Man media, this trust will inevitably be shaken when Kraven learns of Spider-Man’s existence. This is a superhuman man who bears the image of the one thing Kraven seems to fear. He will be forced to travel to New York City and test himself against the ultimate prey.

The film not only sets up a future Kraven vs. Spider-Man story (perhaps drawing from the seminal graphic novel Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt), it also sets up two other important Spider-Man villains in The Jackal and Hechinger’s Chameleon. (although strangely it kills Rhino before he has a chance to meet Spider-Man). We may still not have seen a proper Spider-Man in this universe, but he’s developed an impressive rogues gallery nonetheless.

But again, it’s probably for nothing at this point. As reported by TheWrap, Sony is putting this cinematic universe on the shelfwith a source saying the studio has “developed what they want to develop for now” and is now focused on the next MCU Spider-Man film. This comes as Kraven the Hunter is looking to do even worse at the box office in its opening weekend than Madame Web.

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