Everyone has daddy issues. Even Kraven the Hunter

The new trailer for Kraven is here, and as the number one Kraven the Hunter fan, I have some thoughts. But first, let’s talk about Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his daddy issues. Spider-Man villains: they’re just like the rest of us!

Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe) is the father of Kraven and the two have a tense relationship that feeds into Kraven’s determination. The thing is: Kraven is a rich son who just gets angry at his dad. When you break him down, that’s his entire character motivation, which I do think is very funny. But Nikolai Kravinoff is rich rich.

Well, he was, before the regime in Russia that gave him his power fell, and he had to take his family to New York to keep them safe. That puts a strain their relationship, and they have a difficult time with each other. With Kraven, their relationship is going to get even more complicated because of Rhino.

Alessandro Nivola’s Aleksei Sytsevich is slowly becoming Rhino in the new trailer, and we get to see him fighting Kraven later in the film, but he also is seen with Kraven’s dad. So what does that mean? Is Kraven’s father working against him to bring him a villain in Rhino?

We don’t know yet. Honestly, I’m very interested to see how Kraven works because he is a villain, and not necessarily in the way that Eddie Brock/Venom is. We got a lot of comparisons between the two with this new trailer, but Eddie and Venom have the ability to be weird and out there and anti-heroic but Kraven is … pretty much just a Spider-Man villain. So how is that going to pan out?

There’s a lot they can do with Nikolai Kravinoff

Kraven’s dad is complicated. He eventually has a son with Sonya Smerdyakova. That son becomes Chameleon, so he has two Spidey villains for his boys. I don’t know exactly what their plan is with Nikolai in Kraven though. His relationship does seem tense with Kraven, and I am fascinated by his Rhino connection, but until we know more, we’re kind of left just wondering what his deal is.

Personally, I hope that the Kravinoff family is still rich because I do think that is a hilarious aspect of this game hunter who decides he hates a broke kid from Queens, but hey, that’s why Kraven is so interesting to me! Until we know more, know this: Kraven has daddy issues. Which … honestly? Get in line.