A big-budget, studio-backed comic-book origin story may seem like an unexpected fit for the director of prestige drama films like All is Lost and A Most Violent Year, but J.C. Chandor says he found the origin story of Marvel’s iconic supervillain Kraven the Hunter to be irresistible. This is thanks in no small part to a screen story by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer) that focuses heavily on morality and defining choices, notably around Kraven’s complex relationship with his crime boss father (Russell Crowe).

Starring Golden Globe winner Aaron Taylor-Johnson with Oscar winners Crowe and Ariana DeBose in supporting turns, Sony Marvel’s Kraven the Hunter is an R-rated, action-heavy origin story with an uncommonly conflicted figure at the center. In this exclusive conversation with Collider, director J.C. Chandor discusses the moral ambiguity of Sergei Kravinoff, iconic action movie influences, and what makes Kraven the Hunter stand apart from every other Sony Marvel film.

‘Kraven the Hunter’ Is an Unusual, Morally Ambiguous Story
“It’s essentially this building of a villain.”

COLLIDER: What was it about Kraven the Hunter that made you want to direct your first comic-book film?
J.C. CHANDOR: There are a couple ways to answer that question. At my core, I think I’m a genre filmmaker. It’s heightened, and maybe I look at the genres from a slightly different angle, certainly, but if you go through the movies that I love to watch—and I haven’t stayed with one particular place—as a director, I want to keep challenging myself. I have kids who are now 19 and 14. The first movie I ever saw in a movie theater was Richard Donner’s Superman, so these comic-book movies have been a core element of my moviegoing experience my entire life. I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey; no one in my family was in the film industry or anything like that, so E.T., Superman, and Star Wars were the movies that I grew up on. I’d been offered a couple of different versions of these things over the years for sure, but the first thing that drew me in was the story that Richard Wenk had come up with. It wasn’t complete at that time, but it was a great yarn. Then I did a deep dive into the canon of Kraven, following it all the way through.

As crazy as it seemed, and there were a lot of challenges, there was the opportunity to structure it as a classic origin story, but not a hero’s story, or a classic superhero story. It’s essentially this building of a villain. The final piece in that, for Aaron and for me, was in Kraven’s Last Hunt, which, if this thing works and is a success, that’s where we’d have this story end. It’s obviously very tragic and sad. The journey getting there is a wild crazy ride with a lot of fun, but the character we’re trying to create is one who could realistically, if this film is a success, end with Last Hunt. That, as a storyteller, can sit right on the shelves with the rest of my movies. If I succeeded, and I haven’t been this scared starting a film going back to All is Lost, where I was like, I may not have a movie when it was over. [Laughs] What we’ve tried to do is have it be a Marvel film, and by the third act, it is, but even the stunt work is meant to be totally integrated into the world you and I live in.

‘Kraven the Hunter’ Pays Close Attention to a Detail Most Movies Ignore
Image via Sony Entertainment

As of this interview, I’ve seen about a half-hour of the film, and the action scenes I saw were genuinely striking. I was definitely reminded of First Blood and Predator.

CHANDOR: [Laughs] Well, those are core films of my teenage years. That’s the sweet spot right there.

I mean this as a high compliment: It’s been forever since I saw a studio-backed movie where men are killing each other in the woods.

CHANDOR: I know. Eunice Huthart is the second stunt coordinator and director. She’s an amazing woman; she was actually Angelina Jolie’s stunt double for years. She was the only worldwide Gladiator — remember, on TV, there were American Gladiators and British Gladiators. She was the only competitor who was invited to become an actual gladiator. She got her stunt license to be a gladiator, then got cast as Angelina Jolie’s stunt double back in the ’90s. I think she’s the first woman ever to be a second unit director on a Marvel film.

I try not to comment on other people’s films — it’s really hard to make a movie — but I’ve found that in movies like this, gravity no longer exists. There was no longer a law of gravity. People were bouncing off shit. [Laughs] I know my children and their friends who were watching these movies were starting to laugh in the wrong places. This is just me bringing my teenage son and his friends to movies. Without gravity… I mean, I guess if it’s a movie about space, it’s okay, but gravity affects us all, even birds, almost more so than anyone else. I gave everyone a chart that showed how gravity affected certain people and things.

Like, imagine an Olympic long jumper, and then you or me jumping, that arc is not very impressive. A long jumper’s arc is really cool. We took that gravity chart and looked at the way gravity affected, say, [trapeze artists] who jump from ring to ring in the circus, or BMX jumpers, and different animals, and then we started to limit ourselves. Like, he can do X, but he cannot do Y because it’s not gonna fit into our movie. It’s not perfect because it’s really hard to do this stuff, but it’s pretty damn close. I think what you’re reacting to is that gravity wins at the end of every stunt in this movie.

Teenage boys are a much better judge of these things than they get credit for, and gravity is definitely a thing.

CHANDOR: Yeah. [Laughs] And that’s from the books, too. Kraven is always crashing into shit and falling through things. Don’t tell Aaron this, but Kraven is the self-proclaimed “greatest hunter in the world.” He has his limitations, and that’s what makes his interactions with other people so cool.

4:22 Related “The Action Scenes In This Movie Are Insane”: Aaron Taylor-Johnson Teases the R-Rated ‘Kraven the Hunter’ and Finally Getting to Work With Russell Crowe ‘Kraven the Hunter’ hits theaters December 13.

In the footage I’ve seen, Kraven is quite sympathetic.

CHANDOR: You’re rooting for him. The rule I set for myself is by the final frame of our movie, you had to believe that character could live in a world where Kraven’s Last Hunt is a real thing. But in this part of the journey, he’s not there yet. It’s what I hope makes the story somewhat human. You’re getting to see the meetings in the road where one direction leads to Kraven’s Last Hunt, and one leads to success and more moderated happiness. What I’ve tried to do in all my films is make those moments of decision the keys in the movie. It’s normally not one. You can make a bad decision and completely re-orient and correct yourself. Aaron and I used to joke about this while we were making the movie; 70% of murders go unsolved, which means there are murderers everywhere.

Well, that’s comforting to hear.

CHANDOR: I know, right? The comforting fact is, once you’ve done that, once you probably realize that’s not something you ever want to do again, that’s how you don’t get caught. With Kraven, if you know anything or have seen the trailer, clearly, in our origin story, you’re going to get to see those decision moments. He thinks he’s doing all of this for the right reasons. He’s still charming, but he takes justice into his own hands, and of course, that usually doesn’t end well.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson Transforms Himself for ‘Kraven the Hunter’
“He has unbelievable body control.”
Image via Sony Pictures

Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s physicality in this role is remarkable. How much of his own stunt work did he perform?

CHANDOR: A lot. His background is that, as a kid, he was a dancer. Anyone who’s seen any of his performances, even when he’s not doing stunts, he can control his face in a way that you and I probably can’t. He has unbelievable body control. Certainly, there were elements here where if he was hurt, it would ruin the rest of our schedule, and the whole thing would fall apart. I’m not going to sit here and say there wasn’t an amazing team of stunt professionals doing some of this, but wherever possible. Almost as importantly, the way the character moves in life and in the lead-up to the big stunts, there is an animalistic quality to this character where, whether it’s true or not, he believes he has the soul of an animal in him. In the way Aaron transformed himself, obviously from if it’s not him, it’s almost always another human being. There’s not a lot that’s digital. There’s some digital enhancement and removal of safety equipment. There are certainly a lot of captivating visual effects in the movie, but from a stunt perspective, mostly you’re just looking at the actual performer. I think what you’re reacting to, hopefully, is what feels like, “Holy shit, I can’t believe that just happened.”

Kraven the Hunter hits theaters in the US on December 13.

Your changes have been saved Kraven the Hunter Director J.C. Chandor Cast Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Russell Crowe , Fred Hechinger , Ariana DeBose , Christopher Abbott , Alessandro Nivola , Levi Miller , Chi Lewis-Parry , Billy Barratt , Jessica Zhou , Michael Shaeffer , Dritan Kastrati , Greg Kolpakchi , Elander Moore , Filiz Fairweather , Duran Fulton Brown , Alex Skarbek , Rachel Handshaw , Preslav Shipkaliev , Murat Seven , Robert Ryan Runtime 127 Minutes Writers Art Marcum , Richard Wenk , Matt Holloway Studio(s) Sony Franchise(s) Marvel Comics , Marvel Cinematic Universe Expand

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