Future ‘X-Men’ Star Christopher Abbott Officially Addresses His ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Role

Christopher Abbott, who has been cast as Charles Xavier in Marvel Studios' upcoming reboot of the X-Men franchise, said he could guarantee the movie will be better than his previous superhero movie, Kraven the Hunter. In an interview with Josh Horowitz on the sidelines of his new release, Netflix's East of Eden limited series, Abbott said he did Kraven the Hunter as a favor for director J.C. Chandor, with whom he'd previously worked on the crime drama A Most Violent Year. Kraven the Hunter was the final nail in the coffin of Sony's Spider-Man Universe — a series of poorly received spin-off movies centering on Spider-Man villains. Headlined by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the film tanked both critically and commercially upon release in 2024.

Abbott appeared in the film as the villainous Foreigner, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what the character's superpowers were supposed to be. To his misfortune, no one on set seemed to have the answers either. "I didn't know what I was doing in that. I didn't understand what the superpower was. I didn't know what was going on. I was like, 'What?' And I was like, 'So, I take off my glasses and what happens?' And no one really had a good answer. Can someone give me an answer? I don't know what I was wearing in that thing." Abbott said he did the film only to see how a big-budget superhero production functions, and that Chandor owes him "big time" for saying yes. The movie also featured acclaimed actors such as the Oscar-winners Ariana DeBose and Russell Crowe, as well as Alessandro Nivola and Fred Hechinger.