So far the MCU has staged resolutely, stubbornly PG-13. That’s going to change with Deadpool 3, which will likely be as gleefully R-rated as the first two. That doesn’t mean other modern Marvel films can’t go hard. Over at the comics line’s Sony wing, they’re going full tilt boogie gory with Kraven the Hunter, which just released its first, super bloody trailer.
The ad offers the first decent look at Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s antihero Sergei Kravinoff, the scion of a tough cookie of a father, played by a Russian-accented Russell Crowe. A drop of animal blood turns him into a kind of beast who can commune with the world’s most fearsome critters. But he appears to be just fine doing his own killing, which he does with big scary knives, bows and arrows, and other weapons that douse the screen in streams of blood. At one point he even bites off a dude’s nose and spits it at the screen.
The trailer also includes a last minute appearance by Alessandro Nivola as Rhino, a baddie briefly teased — without any follow-through — in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in which he was played by no less than Paul Giamatti.
Not many get to play two characters in the MCU, but Taylor-Johnson is an exception. Once upon a time the British actor played Pietro Maximof, aka Quicksilver (though he wasn’t called that), His version of the character only appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and when they brought Pietro back briefly for WandaVision, it wasn’t him doing the honors. (Instead they did a Marvel in-joke.) Bringing Taylor-Johnson back should make up for that, but it’s not like he’s lacking for work: Heck, there’s been rumors that he could be the next 007.
You can watch the Kraven the Hunter trailer in the video above. The film is due in theaters on October 6.