Originally Posted by
Revolutionary_Jack
His name Sergei Kravinoff and his family ties to the Chameleon was established in the Lee-Ditko era. So yeah Kraven was always Russian.
JMD of course explored that more, but then he explored Kraven more than anyone. It's interesting that JMD had Dostoevsky in his mind, because Chameleon's name Dimitri Smerdiakov combines two of the characters from Brothers Karamazov which suggests that Lee/Ditko also had Dostoevsky somewhere in the back when dealing with Chameleon and Kraven.
The problem in any case with Kraven in a Spider-Man movie is that the story everyone wants KLH isn't exactly a "first Kraven story". The story also depends at the very least on an older Spider-Man who is capable and competent. For the story to work, you need Kraven's perspective of Spider-Man as this great totemic figure and that needs some pre-established backstory and history for Spider-Man to be that. You need Spider-Man to constantly defeat Kraven in previous encounters and for his recent stories to include some big triumphs...like when KLH came out, it was just a few years after Spider-Man beat up Juggernaut, Firelord and tore the arms out of Dr. Octopus and sent him to a ward with severe arachnophobia. Kraven's Last Hunt started with Spider-Man at the most badass he had been until that point. By contrast, MCU Spider-Man is a dysfunctional incompetent. You can't sell MCU Spider-Man be a totemic hero and so on isn't going to work aside from some jokey parody and so on.
You can at best adapt KLH via HUNTED because Hunted is closer to MCU's level than JMD is, i.e. Hunted is a story that can work with both a young and inexperienced Spider-Man or an older Spider-Man. Hunted works as both an introduction to Kraven and to those who have some familiarity to that. Hunted is also a sprawling work that allows a lot of supporting characters and bringing in ties and cameos.
The main thing I want in the next movie is Spider-Man Vs. Juggernaut. I mean what the hell is the point of having Spider-Man in a shared universe if you can't give us that. Have Juggernaut formed when Kraven empowers him with the Crystal Gem of Cyttorak in the next movie and have that be a 20 minute long fight and so on. Preferably get someone other than Jon Watts to direct.