Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler Wanted A Major Spider-man Villain To Appear In The Marvel Movie

Marvel Studios

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It turns out Kraven the Hunter could have been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than Sony's "Spider-Man" spin-off universe. "Kraven the Hunter" bombed at the box office in late 2024 and effectively killed Sony's plans to make further spin-offs centered on Spidey's various villains. After other misfires like "Morbius" and "Madame Web," it was all too much. But before any of that happened, director Ryan Coogler wanted to include Kraven in "Black Panther."

In an interview on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast in January of this year, Coogler discussed some of his early plans for what became 2018's "Black Panther," which remains one of the MCU's most successful non-"Avengers" movies to date. He explained that writer Joe Robert Cole had already been working on an outline before he got the job, which meant certain pieces of the puzzle were already in place. Here's what he had to say about it:

"When I took that job, Joe Robert Cole, who was my co-writer on both the 'Panthers' [...] had been working with Marvel and they had an outline. So, when I showed up, it was like, 'Hey, our villains are Klaue and Erik Killmonger.' That had been decided upon."

Ultimately, Michael B. Jordan was cast as Killmonger in "Black Panther," while Andy Serkis reprised his role as Klaue from "Avengers: Age of Ultron." But before all of that was firmly set in stone, Coogler had designs on bringing Kraven into the MCU, as he revealed in the interview.

"I'm a big Spider-Man fan, especially 'Spider-Man: The Animated Series.' Kraven's great in that. He's also great in the books. So, I was like, 'Yo, can I have Kraven in this movie?' They hit [up] Sony and Sony was like, 'Absolutely not.'"

Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures not only controls the "Spider-Man" franchise but all of the many, many characters associated with him in the comics. Tom Holland's Spidey gets to appear in the MCU, but that's only because Sony cut a deal with Disney to allow it. Any decisions regarding any of these characters have to get the okay from Sony. They nixed it because they clearly wanted to keep Kraven in reserve.

As it turns out, Holland's Spider-Man nearly fought Kraven the Hunter when the plans for what became "Spider-Man: No Way Home" looked like they might not come together. Instead, the solo movie eventually happened and, well, it didn't exactly pan out for Sony or anyone involved, as it was a critical and commercial disaster.

"I'm glad it didn't work out because Kraven would've basically taken that Klaue spot and I wouldn't have been able to work with Andy [Serkis]," Ryan Coogler added in the interview. "Thankfully, it was doomed from the jump."

Coogler's idea was to base parts of the movie on Christopher Priest's run in Marvel Comics. Kraven appears in that run, and even though he didn't appear in the movie, Priest still had a presence.

"We talked about in the [comics], specifically in the [Christopher] Priest run, there's references to how many tribes are in Wakanda, and how they [don't always] agree, and there's a lot of pressure on T'Challa," Coogler said in an interview for "Black Panther" with /Film in 2018. He's constantly trying to escape Wakanda and go to the States in that run."

You can grab "Black Panther" on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.