‘X-Men’ Reboot Star Christopher Abbott Gets Brutally Honest About ‘Kraven the Hunter’: He Still Doesn’t Know What His Character Could Do
Christopher Abbott is having a remarkable run. He was just revealed as Professor Charles Xavier in Marvel’s upcoming ‘X-Men’ reboot; he earned a Tony nomination for ‘Death of a Salesman’, and he stars in Netflix’s new ‘East of Eden’. But as he steps into one of comics’ most iconic roles, Christopher Abbott’s ‘Kraven the Hunter’ experience is back in the conversation.
That film had a notoriously rocky road. Following 2 years of delays, ‘Kraven the Hunter‘ was finally released on December 13, 2024, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson starring as Kraven alongside Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Abbott, and Russell Crowe. It went on to become one of the genre’s biggest critical and commercial flops, grossing $61.9 million worldwide and landing at 15% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now, Abbott is looking back on the project with striking candor. “I didn’t know what I was doing in that,” he admitted while speaking with Josh Horowitz, explaining that he never understood what his character’s superpower actually was.
He recalled asking basic questions on set, like what was supposed to happen when his character took off his glasses, and feeling as though no one really had a satisfying answer. He added that he doesn’t even remember what he was wearing in the film and has essentially buried the whole experience.
Abbott also revealed that the sense the movie wasn’t working first hit him while he was still shooting it. His comments quickly spread online, with one fan joking that they had completely forgotten he was even in the movie.
Abbott played the Foreigner, an assassin who uses ocular hypnosis to slow time and is hired by Aleksei to take down Kraven. In the film, he poisons Kraven with a neurotoxin before being killed by Calypso with a crossbow.
His confusion makes some sense given the source material. In the comics, the Foreigner is a mercenary with no superhuman abilities, so the film’s hypnotic power was a significant departure from the character’s roots.
The first trailer for ‘KRAVEN THE HUNTER’ has been released.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) June 19, 2023
The film releases on October 6 in theaters. pic.twitter.com/xUzfNcr8Wj
Critics noticed the character’s limited impact, too. The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey wrote that the Foreigner looked and seemed cool but appeared to be banned from being on screen for more than a minute at a time.
The film carried more weight than just one actor’s experience. A report from TheWrap claimed ‘Kraven the Hunter’ would be the final attempt to launch a franchise built entirely around Spider-Man’s villains, following Tom Hardy’s departure from the ‘Venom’ films.
Directed by J.C. Chandor, the movie had been expected to perform more like the ‘Venom’ series than ‘Madame Web’ or ‘Morbius’. Instead, it became another cautionary tale for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
Abbott’s honesty arrives at an interesting moment. He’s now preparing to lead Marvel Studios’ mutant reboot as Professor X, and he has spoken about how different that audition process felt, noting that the material he read for the role was surprisingly human.
That focus on character may be exactly what he felt was missing on ‘Kraven’. After a superhero outing he’d rather forget, Abbott now has a chance to define one of Marvel’s most beloved characters on his own terms.
Do you think Christopher Abbott's Kraven experience will help him as Professor X?
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