Rumored to be playing the next James Bond (by the same U.K. tabloid that said Cillian Murphy was the favorite last week and that Paul Mescal was a lock before that, insert eye roll here), Aaron Taylor Johnson is railing against Hollywood in a new Rolling Stone UK interview. The actor, who appeared opposite Brad Pitt in 2022’s “Bullet Train” and co-stars in the upcoming “The Fall Guy” movie with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, is poised to have his leading moment later this year with Sony’s “Kraven The Hunter.”
Given how poorly Sony’s “Spider-Man” films have performed of late—two back-to-back, ridiculed bombs in “Morbius” and “Madame Web,” and the “Venom” films that make money but no one actually seems to love—Johnson might think to choose his words carefully. Instead, he doubled down about “Kraven The Hunter,” the character, and slammed Hollywood for rushing out mediocre franchise content that he says has diminished the theatergoing experience.
“I think there was something unique about this [Kraven] character and something grounded,” he said. “We’ve all had enough of seeing certain studio films, a certain kind of pop culture… where they’re churning out stuff that dilutes wanting to go to the cinema. I wouldn’t have signed onto it if I felt there wasn’t something to really bring to life with this character.”
Again, given Marvel’s mostly stellar performance in the industry (“The Marvels” notwithstanding), one has to wonder who he is trying to shade here. Does he need to read our Sony Spider-Man recap above?
“I’m not a comic-book reader, but there’s one called Kraven’s Last Hunt…” he said about the dark Kraven comics storyline that sees the character vanquish Spider-Man and then commit suicide simply out of spite. “You just think, ‘What the fuck have I just read?’ That’s the kind of character I’m playing. But then, a lot of the people who grew up with Marvel are old enough now to watch an R-rated movie.”
The actor, who already appeared in Marvel’s “The Avengers” movie as the supporting character Quicksilver, admitted that starring in one of these movies is another ball of wax.
“Taking on a Sony / Marvel movie is a different challenge altogether. There’s the story, the character, the role; that’s one thing. But then you also step into a world where you’re dealing with a studio and a franchise — or possible franchises, though let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So, they’re rolling the dice on me, in a sense, which is a lovely thing,” he said. “But you’ve got to appease the studio, please the audience, and do what’s dignified for you as an actor. I find all of that super challenging.”
One hopes that Taylor isn’t eating his words later this year. While “Kraven The Hunter” does have a great director attached in J.C. Chandor, when the first trailer hit, it was largely mocked online in the same way “Madame Web” was, though arguably not as mercilessly or becoming a ridiculed meme. Still, already set for the dumping ground release date of Labor Day weekend, in theaters August 30, 2024, with an R-rating, the ‘Kraven’ sentiment online isn’t hard to find, and the movie needs to do a lot of work between now and then to become a hit and not just churned out content that dilutes the cinema-going experience.