Actor Alessandro Nivola discusses Kraven the Hunter‘s reception and explains his satisfaction with his role as the Marvel supervillain Rhino. Despite Kraven the Hunter‘s star-studded cast, the sixth installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe was met with some of the worst reviews in the franchise, and even worse box office results. Besides the titular villain-turned-antihero, Kraven the Hunter introduced several more Spider-Man antagonists — Dmitri Smerdyakov a.k.a. Chameleon, Calypso, the Foreigner, and Aleksei Sytsevich a.k.a. Rhino, among others.

In an interview with THR, Rhino actor Alessandro Nivola looks back on his antagonist role in Kraven the Hunter. When asked about his opinion on the factors that may have played into Kraven the Hunter‘s poor performance despite director J.C. Chandor’s otherwise remarkable career, Nivola mentions the possible changes the studio might have made to the director’s original vision and praises his previous work with Chandor. Alessandro Nivola also explains how he designed his Rhino portrayal and highlights the villain’s positive reception. Read Nivola’s full comments below:

“I really don’t know what happened behind the scenes. On these kinds of movies, you hear about all the wranglings at the studio, and maybe there were too many chefs. I don’t know. I don’t know enough about what the process was beyond just my experience of being on set, which was really joyful. J.C., Chris Abbott and I had worked together before on A Most Violent Year, and we all knew each other, so J.C. and [producer] Matt Tolmach trusted us to run wild.

I based my character on a Russian poet named Philip Nikolayev, who’s a good friend of mine and my wife, Emily [Mortimer]. He’s a wonderful writer who’d been visiting us a lot in conjunction with a movie that Emily is writing about an experience she had when she was living in Moscow around the time of glasnost and perestroika. He jogged her memory about that time because they knew each other then, and he is just a totally brilliant guy. He has a really particular-sounding voice, manner and look about him. So he was my initial inspiration for the role, and J.C. and Matt were encouraging of it. Kraven was as creatively playful and fulfilling a time for me as a lot of other movies have been, and so I didn’t have any sense of there being problems behind the scenes. But a lot of that probably starts to play out in the edit with all the different opinions about it, so I really couldn’t tell you. All I know is that I had a great time filming it.

I haven’t read much of the reviews, but my agents sent me all the trades’ reviews, which were some of the best reviews I’ve ever had for anything. In fact, IndieWire wrote three pages about my performance, and so that’s nice. But I don’t really pay too much attention to critical and fan response because it can be a black hole. I went through all of that before with Many Saints of Newark. It was another situation where my performance was praised, but the movie was not.”

What Alessandro Nivola’s Kraven The Hunter Comments Mean

There’s More To A Movie’s Reception Than The Talent Behind And In Front Of The Camera

Alessandro Nivola chewed the scenery in Kraven the Hunter and shined in The Brutalist not long afterward. As Nivola mentions, he also collaborated with Kraven the Hunter director J.C. Chandor on the acclaimed A Most Violent Year. Chandor’s directorial work on movies such as Margin Call and All Is Lost was well-received by critics and audiences, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson has gained critical acclaim in movies like Nocturnal Animals and Bullet Train, not to mention his experience in the comic book movie genre with the Kick-Ass films and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Kraven the Hunter‘s poor reception isn’t a result of a lack of talent. Instead, the movie may have needed more freedom from the studio’s goals for the franchise.

Alessandro Nivola’s clear respect for the source material shows how a character like Rhino could have been better received in a more consistent movie. However, an actor and a director’s vision can only do so much within a restricted production. Sony’s Spider-Man Universe rarely took its characters in fresh directions, and every installment seemed to be pulling its punches. The lack of a distinctive style was a recurrent criticism of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, and Kraven the Hunter was no exception. By the time Kraven the Hunter came out, the franchise’s goodwill had been depleted.

Our Take On Alessandro Nivola’s Kraven The Hunter Comments

Kraven The Hunter Could Have Been A Much Better Movie With The Same Cast

Just like The Penguin turned Oswald Cobblepot into a popular leading villain and The Guardians of the Galaxy turned its titular team into A-list superheroes, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe could have done much more with Venom, Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter. Formerly obscure characters like Drax and Groot could have been a total failure if Marvel Studios hadn’t put enough trust in director James Gunn. Similarly, it’s important to remember how Colin Farrell’s unhinged performance as Bullseye in 2003’s Daredevil wasn’t enough to help the film succeed, whereas every element in The Batman and The Penguin came together to make Farrell’s Oz Cobb a standout character.

The same applies to superhero movie actors like Chris Evans, Michael B. Jordan, and Ryan Reynolds and their respective performances. With the right script and the right vision, compounded by enough freedom and trust from the studio, any comic book character could become a fan-favorite. However, actors can’t do this job by themselves. After a few significant behind-the-scenes changes, a Kraven the Hunter solo movie directed by J.C. Chandor and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson with Alessandra Nivola could have spawned a successful trilogy.