Did Sony Offer Keanu Reeves This Spider-Man Villain Role?

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When Spider-Man officially joined the MCU back in 2015, fans were understandably excited about the prospect of seeing some classic comic book villains finally get some silver screen love. Those fans got exactly what they wanted too, with the Vulture appearing as the main antagonist in Spider-Man: Homecoming, alongside classic foes like Shocker and the Tinkerer, shortly followed by Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far from Home.

Meanwhile, Sony Pictures has attempted to develop a handful of other Spider-Man villains into their own independent projects, starting with 2018's Venom and continuing with the upcoming Jared Leto flick Morbius. So far, most of the other Sony Pictures projects, such as Silver & Black and a solo Mysterio film, appear to have vanished into the ether — but one project that's supposedly still a go is the standalone Kraven the Hunter movie. Fans have long wanted to see the nefarious big game hunter on the big screen, but there hasn't been all that much news about the project in recent months. A 2020 report from Deadline suggested that J.C. Chandor was in talks to direct, with a script by Equalizer scribe Richard Wenk, but that was the most recent major development… until now.

That's because, according to a recent rumor shared by The Illuminerdi, Marvel has allegedly made a formal offer to Keanu Reeves for the role of Kraven in his own standalone movie. To be clear, neither Sony nor Marvel have responded to this rumor, so you're best taking it with a massive grain of salt. But if true, it would be the biggest development for the Kraven the Hunter movie to date. On top of their potential casting scoop, the rumor site also reported that the tone of the film will be a mix of Man on Fire and Logan. The Illuminerdi stressed that this is only an offer so far, however, and didn't give any indication of whether Reeves has accepted or not.

On at least one level, though, it is absolutely true that Marvel Studios has courted Reeves for a number of projects. In 2019, Marvel president Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com that many discussions with Reeves had taken place, and that:

"I don't know when, if, or ever he'll join the MCU, but we very much want to figure out the right way to do it."

And while it would make sense that Sony might want to nab a big star in the role, it's also unclear whether Kraven would be the Marvel character Reeves would finally want to pick — particularly since the connection between Sony's standalone flicks and the MCU remains unclear. Regardless, if Reeves were being courted for this notoriously over-the-top character, it would be an entirely different beast from the kind of roles he's generally associated with.

It's worth saying again that this is a totally unsubstantiated rumor, and neither Marvel nor Reeves have commented on it. Indeed, one reason to be skeptical is that it's unclear whether the standalone film is moving forward at all, or if Sony is waiting to see how Morbius fares, or — even more confusingly — whether Kraven might instead appear in an MCU Spider-Man movie. After all, it was said that Sony was pursuing that solo Mysterio film back in 2017, but the character instead appeared in Far From Home.

And then there's Reeves himself, who's a busy guy to say the least. Among the most prominent of his upcoming projects include The Matrix 4 in December 2021 and John Wick 4 in May 2022.

After that, he'll be appearing in a fifth John Wick film. He's also involved with two more upcoming films, Rally Car and Past Midnight, as well as the TV series Rain.

Sony hasn't officially confirmed their Kraven movie is happening at all, much less shared a timetable for the project, but if filming was to take place before 2023, Reeves would have a difficult time fitting it into his schedule — especially given the heavy demands of featuring in a Marvel film. And given how difficult it's been to bring Reeves into the Marvel fold thus far, it might not be time to bust out the Kraven cosplay just yet.

#KeanuReeves #SpiderMan #MCU

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