They seem to be suggesting that he’s a GOOD guy! He’s one of Spider-Man’s villains! What’s going on with this bullshit?
I think the most basic explanation is that Sony wants to build its own MCU but they only have rights to use Spider-Man characters. There’s probably a better, more detailed explanation, but them’s the basics.
Nope, got it in one.
Though, as is the style of the times, in the comics, he’s been an anti-hero at times. Ditto Venom and Morbius, both of which already have movies where they’re more or less outright ‘heroes’.
Sony, like many others, desperately wants its own massively profitable cinematic universe and can’t figure out how to make one of their own or how to use borrowed characters and settings to do it, either.
I would guess it’s difficult to create a movie around a main character who is an unredeemably bad guy. Doesn’t this happen all the time in the superhero universe-- villains become good guys, or at least better, somewhat redeemable? I think the Hiddleston Loki got a bit of a reputation glow-up when his character proved popular, didn’t it?
A trailer might help-- here’s one:
It is a plot by “them” to sway public consciousness to accept bad guys as good guys in fiction, so it becomes easier to accept it in reality. Ends justify the means, you’re with us or against us. It started with 24, and moved to Suicide Squad/Thunderbolts and similar. And what’s with the Gladiator II movie? The original was a fine revenge story about a wronged man forced into the games. The new trailer doesn’t even bother to hint at a plot, and looks like it is priming the populace for actual gladiatorial games, soon to be televised. And sponsored by Pepsi. (Kirk: I recall it was…similar.)
Am I kidding? I’m just asking questions.
Clearly it is a depiction of Kraven soon after he met Squirrel Girl.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson in any superhero film is just going to be Kick-Ass to me.
In Avengers: The Age of Ultron, he was fast Kick-Ass.
In Kraven, I guess he’s a murderous part-lion Kick-Ass.
But he is always Kick-Ass.
…Also, the only real Rhino is Paul Giamatti in a robot suit!
(Actually I will reserve judgement, I liked Venom so this could possibly be good.)
Well, fuck 'em. I’m no more willing to think of Kraven as a good guy, than I am to think of Jim Phelps as a bad guy. AFAIAC, any putative Kraven franchise can go to the same hell as the one to which I’ve consigned the M:I franchise.
Dirty Dozen? Dirty Harry? Other movies from the period that don’t start with the word “Dirty”? You’re not talking about a new phenomenon here. It’s a reaction to the loss of faith in public institutions, then and now.
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry?
Haven’t seen that one, but based on its Wiki plot summary… that one too.
Hardly. Especially the ending. “Ask not for whom the train whistle tolls; it tolls for thee.”
I’ll acknowledge Dirty Harry. Contemporary reviewers called him a fascist. But, to be fair, in Magnum Force Harry rebelled at the titular hit squad when they though he was a natural fit. He’s a true antifa!
You have to admit, though, that the Suicide Squad is basically Dirty Dozen with superheroes.
Well, I don’t! 
Ok, maybe. except everyone except for Reisman (of course) and Wladislaw (and Richard Jaeckel and his shiny helmet) die. I think that means we weren’t supposed to like them.
Hey, I liked them all! Except for Maggott, of course. Fuck that guy.
They redeemed themselves through sacrifice.
I kinda thought that when I created this thread, it was ABOUT Kraven the Hunter, an established BAD guy, being implied in trailers as a GOOD guy.
But you folks have your fun.
(ETA: BTW, where the fuck is Spiderman in all this? KtH only exists in the context of being a challenge that Spidey must face.*)
(*and defeat)
The same place Batman was in the Catwoman movie.
Franko was an asshole as well. He shot and killed a bystander during a robbery in London.
I also do not necessarily understand where Sony is trying to go with their Marvel Comics spin offs. They probably still hope that people have some vague recollection from their youths of the names and then go to the movies? This Kraven has nothing at all to do with the Kraven from the comics and more with, I don’t know, John Wick?
Is it that people will always hope that some day, Spiderman will appear in one of these?
Initially I liked the idea of them establishing some Villains beforehand to make the impending clash with Spidey more interesting, but that never materialises. Mainly because they turn all their villains into heroes.
So, what are they doing?