Christopher Abbott knew Kraven the Hunter was in trouble while the cameras were still rolling.
The actor, who is set to play Charles Xavier in Marvel's upcoming X-Men reboot, opened up about his small role in Sony's disastrous Spider-Man spinoff during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, admitting he had no idea what he was doing on set.
"I can s*** talk myself," Abbott said, making clear he was comfortable critiquing his own performance before turning to the film itself. "I don't know what I was doing in that thing. I didn't understand what the superpower was, I didn't know what was going on."
Abbott, known for Girls and Catch-22, played a minor role in Kraven the Hunter, and said the confusion started with the basics of his own character. "I was like, 'I take off my glasses and what happens?' I feel like no one really had a good answer," he recalled. "I don't know what I was wearing in that thing. I've sort of buried it deep down."
It was clear to him in the moment that the production was off the rails. "That was a learning curve," Abbott reflected. "In the moment, I was like... 'I don't think this is going well.'"
Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular Spider-Man villain, was a critical and commercial disaster upon release, widely regarded as one of the final nails in the coffin of Sony's Spider-Man Universe of spinoff films. The movie was savaged by critics and underperformed at the box office, capping a run of poorly received entries that included Morbius and Madame Web.
Abbott's comments are a rare on-the-record admission from someone inside one of those productions that the problems were visible from the inside, not just in hindsight. His description of a set where even basic questions about his character's powers went unanswered paints a picture of a production in disarray.
Thankfully for Abbott, he is getting a second shot at the superhero genre with a far more prestigious assignment. He is set to lead Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot as Professor Charles Xavier, directed by Jake Schreier. The film is officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is expected to be a key focus for Marvel in the aftermath of Avengers: Secret Wars.
The reboot's cast is shaping up to be one of Marvel's most ambitious ensembles. Abbott will star alongside Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, and Adam Driver as the villain Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mr. Sinister.
For Abbott, the contrast between the two experiences could hardly be starker: from a production where he says nobody could explain his character's powers, to leading Marvel's most anticipated new franchise as the most iconic telepath in comics.
